Website Usability Audit

What Is It And Why Is It Needed?

Usability plays an important role in the success of any business that has a website and sells online. You can prepare an analysis of the target audience and set up advertising correctly, but the site does not sell. The problem may be hidden in the absence of just one button. What is a website usability audit and why is it needed? You will learn about this in the article. This is important if you are planning to develop a website and are looking for a company that provides bespoke software development services.

What Is Usability?

Website usability determines the user’s level of comfort in using the website. When visiting the site, a person should easily find the necessary information and do what the business owner intended: buy a product, leave a request for a calculation, allow a newsletter, or read an article.

So usability is a kind of audit of a page for comfort, ease of working with it, clarity of navigation, and practicality of the interface.

Goals And Objectives of a Website Usability Audit

Verification is necessary to increase conversion or increase the number of visitors who take the desired action on the site. To do this, it is necessary to optimize their path to the necessary buttons and lead forms.

The objectives of the audit can be divided into several groups:

1. Search for errors, bugs, and defects. They prevent potential customers from completing the necessary actions on the site. Let’s say you invite a visitor to fill out an application, but the input field doesn’t work. Most likely, after several attempts to solve the problem, the person will leave the resource and go to competitors.
2. Find reasons for traffic outflow. One of them may be poor usability. When choosing between multiple platforms, the user will remain on a site with a convenient interface. If you notice an outflow of traffic after a redesign, a possible problem is poor usability.
3. Content analysis and improvement. The audit determines its qualitative information and visual components. It happens that useful content is written in a poorly readable font, or is located on a colorful background, and it is difficult for the visitor to perceive it.
4. Interface improvements. Competent usability identifies resource problems that repel visitors. In this matter, it is important to understand what target audience the page is aimed at. In accordance with this, evaluate whether the created interface will be understandable to her.
5. Competitiveness. The user must remain on your site. Of the two sites, a person will choose the one that is easier to use. He will return to the site where there is interesting information and tools, for example, interactive elements, useful articles, and a cost calculator.

In What Cases Is It Necessary to Conduct a Usability Audit?

A usability audit is useful for well-promoted sites with a long history and sites created recently. There are several reasons for carrying it out.

1. Social, political, and economic changes, as a result, the emergence of new trends. For example, the popularity of online shopping has skyrocketed during the pandemic. Many companies have added the function of ordering products to the platform and their delivery to their business processes.
2. Development is reaching a new level. Let’s say a brand is ready to expand through online promotion, increasing the range of products and services, and increasing the audience. At the same time, there is no understanding of where to start. Usability will help answer the question.
3. Decrease in conversion. Visitors do not perform targeted actions and this is not due to objective reasons, such as seasonality.
4. Visitors quickly leave the resource. A usability audit will allow you to figure out what turns them off.
5. There are outdated or non-working elements and lead forms left on the page. It is better to remove them or redo them.

If you don’t want to waste time testing questionable design solutions, we recommend contacting an experienced bespoke software development solutions company like JoinToIT.

Stages of Usability Audit

In a full usability audit, it is important to evaluate several parameters.

Technical Specifications

If there is a problem in this area, the visitor will not be able to perform the target action or access the necessary resources.

The following characteristics are checked:

• Validity of HTML, CSS, and JS code.
• Download speed.
• Server response.
• Mobile version. To search for information, people often use a phone rather than a computer. You must be sure that the mobile version works correctly and loads quickly.
• Checking a valid SSL certificate.

Content

Content also significantly influences the user’s perception of the site and their desire to make a purchase. The audit checks:

• Well-designed headings. They should be catchy from the first phrase and reflect the main idea of the main text.
• Content that is interesting to the target audience. It’s better to speak a language that your main users understand and provide interesting, useful information for them. Avoid complex terms and ambiguous phrases.
• Excerpt in the same style. The visitor should immediately understand which page he has landed on and what specific symbols mean.
• Clear anchor links are highlighted in a single color in accordance with the overall concept.
• Each section should have a specific purpose.

Navigation

When evaluating navigation parameters, you should pay attention to the following aspects:

• Creating human-readable URLs. Thanks to this, your potential clients will be able to remember the name of the page and understand its purpose.
• Using breadcrumbs.
• Removing broken and incorrect links. They should all lead to the correct pages and not produce errors.
• Search bar to quickly find the information you need.
• Unloaded header.

Design

There are several important criteria in this section:

• The style and chosen color scheme must correspond to the theme of the resource.
• The text is legible and easy to read in any block.
• A harmonious combination of colors that does not irritate.
• Adaptation of design for different types of devices.
• Conversion elements. Buttons: “Buy”, “Order”, “Contact the manager”, “Leave a request”, chat bots, etc.
• Company information, contacts.

Final Thoughts

If your goal is to make a profit using a web resource, increase brand awareness, or establish or improve your position in a competitive race, you need to take care of the correct functioning of your digital platform. JoinToIT is a reliable bespoke software development services agency that will help you create a high-quality website for successful sales and protect you from usability errors.