What Is Usability?
Usability is the measure of the quality of a user’s experience when interacting with a product or system — whether a Web site, a software application, mobile technology, or any user-operated device.
Usability is a combination of factors that affect the user’s experience with the product or system, including:
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Ease of learning |
How fast can a user who has never seen the user interface before learn it sufficiently well to accomplish basic tasks? |
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Efficiency of use |
Once an experienced user has learned to use the system, how fast can he or she accomplish tasks? |
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Memorability |
If a user has used the system before, can he or she remember enough to use it effectively the next time or does the user have to start over again learning everything? |
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Error frequency and severity |
How often do users make errors while using the system, how serious are these errors, and how do users recover from these errors? |
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Subjective satisfaction |
How much does the user like using the system?
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Why Is Usability Important?
Research by User Interface Engineering, Inc., shows that people cannot find the information they seek on Web sites about 60% of the time. This can lead to wasted time, reduced productivity, increased frustration, and loss of repeat visits and money.
Other sources report:
- “There are about 43 million Web sites, and no one knows which ones are usable. The best sites we’ve found are usable only 42 percent of the time, and none that we have studied are usable a majority of the time ….”
- Studies by Forrester Research estimate several costs of bad site design. The two most striking are:
• Losing approximately 50% of the potential sales from a site as people can’t find what they need
• Losing repeat visits from 40% of the users who do not return to a site when their first visit resulted in a negative experience
- Site design guru Jakob Nielsen reports:
“Studies of user behavior on the Web find a low tolerance for difficult designs or slow sites. People don’t want to wait. And they don’t want to learn how to use a home page. There’s no such thing as a training class or a manual for a Web site. People have to be able to grasp the functioning of the site immediately after scanning the home page — for a few seconds at most.”
So After this Little discussion do you think you need Usability for your sites? Give your comments…
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