I found this article on website usability on the Web Designer Depot blog. The article, "10 Usability Tips for Web Designers" (http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2008/12/10-usability-tips-for-web-designers/) shares these tips:
1. Include a Tagline: Have a statement that tells what you website is about, and have it be the most noticeable thing on the page.
2. Implement Site Search: Include a search box, make it easy to find and easy to use.
3.Don't Use Extensive Graphics: Too many design elements can mislead people. Be minimal with graphics.
4. Use Site Maps: These are lists of the pages in your site, so people can find what they need quickly and easily.
5. Don't Break the Workflow: Allow users to cancel whatever operations they are doing. Don't force them to finish it.
6. Create Easily Scannable Web Pages: Make your website easy to scan. Use emphasis on the more important information, so people can find what they need easily.
7. Don't Design Misleading UI Controls: Keep buttons, tabs, rollover, etc. consistent so you font confuse the users.
8. Give Meaningful Feedback: Let people know what's going on. Like, with an error message, give more information that just error. Let them know what went wrong and how to get back to the site.
9.Do not overuse Javascript: This is for compatibility. Not everyone has the latest version of JavaScript, so using it too much can prevent them from using the site.
10. Avoid CAPTCHAs: These can be difficult and annoying for some people to interpret, so find more user-friendly ways instead.
This author makes some good points. I like his ideas about having taglines and making the pages easily scannable. I feel it is very important to make a website easy to understand at a glance. People are busy; they want to be able to find what they are looking for quickly. I also like his point about giving feedback, especially with error messages. Those are so frustrating when they don't give any information and you don't know why it showed up. I don't completely agree with his point about using graphics. Admittedly, I have a weakness for using lots of graphics, but I feel that that isn't necessarily bad all the time. I feel it works for some websites and not so much for others. More personal sites, like blogs, or portfolios can have plenty of graphics and still work, but in a more public site like news sites, or stores, too many graphics would just be distracting.
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