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The Importance of Uasability

As the usability expert Jakob Nielsen stated " Usability Rules The Web ".

Usability, is the ability to use or locate information for which users are searching.

In real business we say the customer is always right, in virtual online business we say the user has the power to control that mouse and decides to click off your site or stay. This is where usability plays its role, your site should be attractive and usable for the user to stay .

Usability issue should be considered in every aspect when designing a site, some of usability concepts covers the following areas :

High Quality Contents
Maintenance - Often updated
Download time Keep it minimal
Easy to use anf figure out Choose your layout carefully
Relevant to user's needs work your goals with your users needs
Memorability :
Try to choose a good design to your site from the first time you decide to have a website.
If your site is a successfull one and you decided to redesign keep the layout and colors of your site the same, Keep the change to a minimal ,once a user gets used to a site it's hard for them to accept a total change. Re-design should be make the site better and easier to use not to give it a new look unless your site is not successfull and you need to start over anyway.
Computers as business medium.
Keep users medium in mind not all users have the same machine as you so your design should be able to run smoothly on almost all machines , keep it standard.
Flash sites and usabilities : Flash is a beautifull program that brings a web page alive but unfortunatly it takes longer time to load and has many accessibality issues

If you like to have a flash website always keep the following in mind :
1-Preloader

Always use a preloader, using no preloader many times causes the visitors to think either the site is broken or stalled. Sites often runs slower on dialup connections so it's always good to let your visitors know when a movie is loading even if it seemed a small movie to you.

2- Splash Screen :

Let's face it not all computers are equiped with flash pluggins, a good habit is to place a graphic and a text link to direct users to the pluggins download location.

3- Flash Introduction :

Always give the user the choice to get out of the intro by adding a simple " Skip intro " button . Visitors will look at the intro the first time they visit your site after that they most likely want to get to the site right away to get information or complete a task.

Well now by reading all the tips on this site you have a slight taste of what usability is and the issues it represents.

I invite you to visit any usability expert site and check it out, get more information about usabilility before planing your site.

If you have any specific questions about our web site design tips,
or if you would like permission to republish this design tip on your web site or newsletter,
please use our contact form or email us at webmaster@nadweb.net.


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