3 Usability Links Every Online Business Should Click Upon

Posted by Laura Bergells

February 26, 2007

Design your site with usability in mind.

Yeah, it’s important! Following research-based web usability guidelines can dramatically increase your online sales or improve conversion rates for other business goals (like increasing lead generation or e-news readership).

Anyone who is responsible for the design or business strategy for a commercial website absolutely must understand the importance of usability.

If you are new to the term web usability, get hip quick.

Here are three links every online business person should click upon right away:

Jakob Nielsen provides you with Usability 101 — the What, Why, and How of Usability. Read it, know it, practice it. It really is invaluable information. Like I said, you can significantly improve your business goals by following usability best practices.
In his recent, easy-to-understand article, Philipp Lenssen patiently describes the difference between usability, approachability, and accessibility. Good stuff to know.
The US Department of Health and Human Services Research provides a free download page of its 18 chapters of Research-Based Web Design and Usability Guidelines. (One of the chapters covers accessibility.) Note that the title says “Research Based“. These guidelines are not opinion — so even if you are not developing a site for the Federal Government, the content in these pages can give you sharp insights on how to develop a more user-friendly website.

In his latest AlertBox, Nielson gives us even more compelling information on how usability can impact your ROI.

Given all the compelling evidence for usability and the utter wealth of invaluable free research-based guidelines for making improvments, how can you make your site more usable this year?