6 Easy Ways To Improve WebSite Usability & Accessibility

The first time I ever heard of usability and accessibility was when I decided to re-design my site. After doing some research I discovered that no matter how fancy your site is nothing replaces the need for it to be usable or functional to your visitors. Accessibility covers whether or not your site is functional for those with disabilities that may use alternate methods to view websites besides web browsers. Usability addresses whether or no your site is easy to use or if users have to stumble through to get the information their seeking. There are a multitude of websites and books dedicated to both subjects. Since I can’t implement every single thing that is suggested these are the simple changes I did use to improve usability and accessibility for my site.

1. Keep design simple. I used Dreamweaver and used DIV’s for pinpoint placement of images and text and used CSS to style the DIV’s. CSS also allows for consistent application of the style of the website and for easy changes if need be.
2. Use persistent and consistent navigation. Give users familiar references like a Home button that goes back to the index page and logo or mast head that also goes back to the index page.
3. Easily distinguish links or buttons that are a “call to action”. It can be something as simple as a link that changes color when hovered over or stays underlined. Just make it obviously clickable.
4. Write content in a “scannable” fashion. I know that I rarely read every word of text on a website so don’t use long pages of text without giving whitespace where eyes can rest.
5. No splash pages or flash intros. They really serve no purpose and can waste valuable time of your visitors.
6. Provide alt text for all images. Some people like to surf with images turned off and plus it gives search engines more relevant content to index.

There is always more to learn to learn about usability and accessibility and I will incorporate more with further updates of my website. Here are some of the websites and books I have used to educate myself.

Websites:
Jakob Nielson on Usability & Design
Universal Usability

Books:
Don't Make Me Think- A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (My personal fave and a quick and easy read) by Steve Krug
Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity by Jakob Nielson (a big book chockfull of information)