What is Usability?

Definition and Meaning

What is usability? It effectively describes how easy your particular website is to use. A site with positive usability would have fast loading times, intuitive and responsive buttons, and a layout that’s easy to navigate. A site with poor usability would be the complete opposite; pages would take forever to load, buttons lead nowhere, and customers easily get lost.

What Factors Can Improve Usability?

Now that we’ve answered the question of “what is usability,” it’s important to focus on the various factors that can optimize this attribute. There are six major “ingredients” that ultimately help to increase your website’s usability:

• Learnability: your visitors’ ability to grasp your website’s intricacies and maneuver from page to page
• Efficiency: your visitors’ ability to quickly navigate and perform tasks on your website
• Memorability: just like riding a bike, this revolves around your visitors’ ability to navigate your website after a period of inactivity
• Errors: revolves around how often your visitors make errors on your site, and whether these errors have serious repercussions (like a failed sale)
• Satisfaction: at the end of the day, this judges how happy customers are with your site
• Utility: refers to how functional and intuitive your website is

While you were searching for an answer to “what is usability,” an answer to “what is utility” is just as important. The “utility” aspect is one of the most important parts of optimizing usability. While it’s great that your website is working, it won’t mean much if your customers are accomplishing your desired result. Reversely, it doesn’t matter if you guide customers to your end-goal if there are too many glitches along the way. By optimizing the “utility” aspect of “usability,” you’re assuring that every possible hurdle has been avoided.

Why is Usability Important?

We’ve figured out the answer to “what is usability,” but you still might be wondering why it’s all that important. Ultimately, a website’s usability goes a long way in retaining customers. If your site’s lack of usability leads to a difficult buying-experience, doesn’t clearly convey what your business is all about, plays a role in your customers getting lost, or has some other kind of adverse impact, there’s little chance your customers are going to return. Why would they deal with the hassle when they could visit a business’s website that’s much more user-friendly?

On the flip side, if you’ve improved usability, you’ll find that your customers are sticking around and ultimately making a purchase. Of course, optimizing this factor is easier said than done, but there are several methods you can use when looking to improve your site’s usability:

• Refer to customer feedback to determine potential areas of improvement
• Ask the customers to perform standard tasks, and then analyze the results

Do You Need to Optimize Usability for Your Spreadshop?

Of course! No matter the size of your business or website, it’s always important to optimize usability. You’ll only have a brief moment to convince a customer to stick with your website, and anything that could compromise this feat should be remedied. Fortunately, Spreadshop is always focused on improving and refining our interface, and this should end up having a vicarious positive impact on your site’s usability.