12 Checklists for Website Usability

A good website design can be the major attraction in selling products and gaining attention of customers. It should be designed in such a way so as to attract customers and compels them to revisit. But every website is different. There are some things that all great sites have in common. Here's a checklist to help you make your website great.
Digestible Layout: Your viewers should be able to easily identify the structure and layout of the site. This is especially important for the homepage.

Easy to read Text: It doesn't matter how well written the website's content is written, if it's hard to read, you'll lose traffic. Make sure that the text contrasts well with the background, that it's large enough, and spaced well enough to be easy to read. Your font shouldn't be unusually ornate or fancy, either (Wingdings is a really, really bad choice).

No spelling or grammatical mistakes: Mistakes and spelling and grammar can put off visitors, be sure to check for them using text editing software or online tools. ritin' leik diz aint profeshunal, ya 'no wat i mene?

Prominent Logo : The logo should be easy to find, usually at the top left or center of the page. Clicking on it should take the user to the homepage of the website.

Company information easy to reach: People visiting your site for the first time will want to know who you are and what you do. Make it easy for them to find out. Also include contact information.

Important content is above the “fold”: The “fold” is that imaginary line where your content is cut off at the bottom of the screen. Anything that user must see should be above that, because you really can't rely on the user scrolling (it's so much work!).

Styles stay consistent: Viewers should be able to tell that they're on your site just by the style. Keep a color and font theme. Don't decorate one page with roses and another with skulls, you'll confuse your viewers.

Emphasis isn't over used: Don't try to draw attention to everything with bright colors, bold fonts and flashing text. If it's all like that, anything that written in normal black text will end up getting all the attention.

Main navigation area is easy to find and use: The navigation bar should be easy to find from every page in the website. If there are multiple navigation areas, make sure that their difference is clear. The number of buttons should be around or below seven, and they should have concise, easy to understand labels.

Page titles are useful: This is important for sites that need good search engine ranking. Titles should be unique and descriptive. Make sure that it makes sense and isn't jammed full of keywords, or you'll lose potential visitors from search engines.

Site loads fairly quickly: It's important for your site to not be too heavy. If users have to wait to for the site to load, they may just leave the site. It's also important that flash and other plug-ins load reasonably fast. After all, no one likes waiting.

Site views correctly on all browsers: Make sure your site shows up right on the main browsers, like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and, for those misguided, confused people, Internet Explorer. Also make sure it looks good when the browser window is re-sized.

Following this checklist won't make your site the next Google or Facebook, but if you follow these rules, you'll have a site that will earn visitors and keep them. It'll help your site generate traffic, and will go a long ways in making it successful.
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