Evaluating a websites usability enables web designers to know how well a website can perform for users. It also results in satisfying and measuring the success of a website’s functionality. For this purpose, a number of website usability evaluation methods are applied as well as essential metrics and google analytics to gather information and feedback for a web design.
The purpose of website usability evaluation is to improve the usability of website so that users find it easy to use and access information with a less time consuming flow of browsing.
Defining Website Usability
A website’s usability is defined as the ease of using or working on a website. It includes presentation of information to users in an understandable concise way. Website usability also includes placing elements in proper places so that it is easy to browse for users, belonging to any demographics.
Websites usability is an important factor to evaluate in order to measure the successfulness of a website design. It helps web designers to create more usable websites by knowing users response, acceptance or rejection.
What is Website Design Usability Evaluation?
Usability evaluation for a website design is to evaluate the usability of a website to assess quality of communication between the website and a user who has to use the product. A website design is evaluated using different measures such as: user satisfaction, comfort and time spent in performing an action.
Website Usability Evaluation Methods
For evaluating the usability of a website, various methods are applied with the goal of finding usability problems and their solution to offer a connectivity experience to users. These usability evaluation methods include:
1. Formative Evaluation: This website evaluation focuses on “form”, design and development of a website. Formative evaluation of a website includes detecting and eliminating usability problems iteratively. The evaluation team is the web designers’ team in itself who are working on the website. They observe the usability and provide their recommendations.
2. Summative Evaluation: The purpose of summative evaluation is to assess a website to know whether usability objectives are achieved. It is applied when a web design is nearly completed under realistic conditions.
Summative evaluation determines if website design satisfies goals to be achieve and meets a specific measurable performance.
Essential Metrics For Website Usability Evaluation
Other than evaluating user experience, some metrics are used to determine the usability of a website. These essential metrics are:
1. Single Usability Metric (SUM)
2. Usability Problems (UI Problems)
3. Completion Rates
4. Task Time Efficiency
5. Task Level Satisfaction
6. Test Level Satisfaction
7. Task Errors
8. Expectancy
9. Tracking Page Views/Clicks
10. Conversion Rate
Google Analytics To Evaluate Website Usability
Google analytics helps to know the problem areas in evaluating a website usability. For the purpose, Google analytics software is used to identify potential problems that results in improving website usability. Web metrics data is calculated, and then analysis and interpretations are employed to quickly indicate a problem on specific pages.
It shows how users may use a website using different browsers.
eTek Studio a Dubai web design company are packed with evaluating web designing projects, it evaluate a website’s usability using different metrics google analytics and methods.
