Forum Moderators: open
I've already checked out the popular sites (Jakob Nielson, Usable Web, W3C, RNIB)
Maybe rather than look for stats in general about usability you could focus on one aspect of your site that you think needs improving. Example, if you guys have a Flash-based intro page and you think that needs to be tossed, an article like this might help:
htt*://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2524
Not trying to start a Flash or Not debate, please. Just suggesting a path for Trenton to pursue before talking to his boss about improving the site.....
Aside from the legal requirements
Perhaps you could ask him what, aside from the legal requirement, are the advantages of staying compliant with the IRS (if you're American).
And then you could point out that an accessible/usable website actually does have advantages beyond the legal requirements. I'm sure others can come up with more and better reasons, but how about...
- available to more users
- less frustrating to users, which translates to happier customers
- users can accomplish tasks more efficiently which, ultimately should reduce server load even if the individual pages are heavier.
Then there's the moral argument.... but I'm too tired to mount my high horse today.
Tom
That herd's gotten awfully big around here, and where there are horses....
Your boss may be the boss because he understands the strategy behind orchestrating the from-contact-to-sale process. High usability may not be in your best interest if, for instance, you're trying to generate leads.
Other parts of the answer will have to do with your products' reputation, pricing, sales flexibility, etc etc.
But, if you aren't monitoring and testing the accessibility and usabilty, you don't have anything like a full answer. Whoever is in charge of sales and marketing should be worried.
High usability may not be in your best interest if, for instance, you're trying to generate leads.
I'll bite. How would an unusable site help to generate leads? Wouldn't Joe Customer get to the site, find that it's a struggle to use, and go elsewhere?
Maybe we have different definitions of 'usable' ...
>high horseThat herd's gotten awfully big around here, and where there are horses....
Yep, that's why I was staying away from horses today. I started to write something, but the smell was gettin' to me...
The poster asked how to convince the boss. I'm certainly willing to admit as well that the boss has a certain budget and maybe he has done the calculation that they should spend on other areas. But I suspect the boss has seen only the downsides (spending time on something that is aimed a small minority) and the poster wants to list some other sides to the argument. That's valid too.
Tom
Yes, to the form if it's front-and-center. Joe is lazy, he'll take the path of least resistance every time. How many emails have you received asking you for information that is easily found on your website?
For sites that require horizontal scrolling to see the entire content of the page, about 92% of visitors did not scroll horizontally.
Sites that eliminate or modify the navigational bars on their checkout, registration, or application page experience a higher success rate than sites that maintain their same template throughout all their pages.
www.usabilitywebsite.com/secrets.htm
Been there, done that. The commonest cases of this in my experience, are to do with sites with massive graphics that are slow loading and innefficient, but look good to the owner. To compound the frustration, they will never believe the "slow loading" angle because they see it load from cache at high speed every time they inspect it on their own computer.
Such sites commonly perform badly when with some common-sense applied, they could be quite effective.
I have found it a puzzle sometimes to [quickly] convince a non-tech owner that the site is actually a lemon.....
;)
Yep, that's where usability usually stops. There was a study last year, two of them actually, that supported simple, plain-ish websites as being the better performers. Maybe tedster has the links, I distinctly remember him groaning 'Not another usability study!' when I sent them to him.
I need to persuade my boss that we should make our website both more usable and accessible
I am not a web expert or designer, but I do earn my life with paper-based design. As far as i know usability and accesibility are quite different things.
Usability is a must in any design. If you make the user experience troublesome you'll lose users.
<rant>
When some designers say they make less usable designs because they just want to appeal 'more intelligent users' and not just the common herd, they are making a lame excuse for badly thought design and lack of design self-discipline. (Geez, Do I get angry with this ;) )
</rant>
As for accesibility, although I think it should be a general aim, I acknowledge that it depends on the expected audience and use. For example: The Intranet of a Publishing house may be all right not being quite accesible for blind people.
But even so, the search for more accesibility helps the search for more usability.
Besides, establishing an usability and accesibility goal usuallly enforces a continual review filter that helps a lot to avoid the stupid mistakes every one makes in production workflows.
Just my two cents of euro :)
Pleasing search engine spiders is A Good Thing.
And that's without another 20% of people who don't use IE6/WinXP with the default monitor size/color settings with a standard desktop mouse/keyboard and fast connection.
So if you design with one fixed mindset, then you're simply throwing money away. And this must be the bottom line for every boss.
Consider adding things like accesskeys and I'm sure it will pay off...
