An outstanding user experience is vital to the success of your website, but the best UX design isn’t flashy, complex, or packed with features; it’s simple, intuitive, and hassle-free. Good UX lets visitors use your website with minimal friction, leaving a lasting, positive impression.
Website usability is rooted in effective web design. When you take a user-centered approach by focusing on your customers’ needs, your website not only looks more appealing, but it also works better for those who matter most to your business.
Here are the key principles behind useful websites, how to test usability, and actionable steps to improve website usability for your ecommerce store.
What is website usability?
Website usability refers to the relative ease visitors experience when using a website. Usability focuses on the user’s needs and how effectively they can interact with your site to achieve their goals. Web designers study, test, and improve website usability during the web design process and continually iterate post-launch to optimize the user experience.
The two main goals of website usability are clarity and utility:
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Clarity. A clear website communicates everything from navigational structure to layout, simply and directly.
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Utility. Utility is an essential aspect to ensure your site’s features work properly and are accessible, easy to use, and cater to your target audience’s needs.
Website usability draws on human-computer interaction (HCI) principles, which emerged in the late 20th century. HCI researchers study how people interact with computer interfaces. Their principles help designers create websites that are intuitive and user-friendly, creating increased user satisfaction and higher engagement.
Importance of website usability for business
Good website usability is a powerful tool that helps you achieve multiple business goals:
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User retention. A usable website keeps users engaged and on your site. If a website is hard to navigate or use, users are likely to leave, causing bounce rates to soar.
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Ecommerce success. Web usability makes products easy to find and purchase. When users encounter difficulties during product searches or checkout, they’re less likely to complete purchases, leading to lower sales. A user-friendly design reduces friction in the customer journey, improving conversion rates.
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Brand perception. Your website experience can shape users’ opinions of your brand. Web usability helps shape—and enhance—your brand image, with better usability creating a more positive perception.
Foundational website usability principles
Here are five key principles for making websites usable. Think of these website usability principles as key steps in the customer journey, guiding users from their first interaction to that crucial moment of conversion, where they transition from visitor to customer.
Accessibility
Accessibility ensures users can reach and use your site, regardless of device, ability, or technical skill. Start by choosing a reliable web hosting service to ensure your site runs consistently and with minimal downtime.
With over half of internet traffic coming from mobile devices, mobile usability is a must. Ensure your website adapts across devices and screen sizes and is fully mobile-responsive. Confirm that your website remains easy to navigate in different layouts by opening it on various devices, including smartphones and tablets, and different browser window sizes for the desktop version.
Adhere to accessibility standards for people with disabilities, such as visual impairments and cognitive challenges. Aim for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the internationally recognized standard for accessible web content.
Recognition
Recognition is how quickly users can identify what they need, what actions to take, and how things work. It ensures your website is familiar, intuitive, and welcoming. Assess the recognition learning curve with user testing methods like:
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Usability testing. Usability testing involves watching users as they navigate your site, noting if and where they hesitate or seem confused.
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Heat maps. Heat maps identify if users are easily finding key elements and calls to action (CTAs) by showing where they click, how far they scroll, and where they hover their mouse.
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A/B testing. A/B testing compares different layouts or designs to see what users find more intuitive.
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User feedback surveys. Ask specific questions about ease of navigation and site familiarity.
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Task completion time. Give users tasks to complete on your site and measure the time it takes.
Most users have conscious and unconscious expectations of website performance. Meet those expectations by asking yourself the following:
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Are you consistently using standard menu structures and clear labeling for navigation?
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Are icons for common actions like search and shopping cart widely understood?
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Do headings, subheads, and spacing indicate a clear visual hierarchy?
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Do your buttons and links behave predictably?
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Does the web layout feel familiar, like logos in the top left corner and the search feature in the top navigation bar?
The quicker users recognize and understand your site, the better.
Clarity
Clarity removes ambiguity so users can fully understand what your website offers and how they can benefit from it. Create clear on-site messaging and a clean visual design to address key questions like “What does your company do?” and “How would this product meet my needs?”
If your content is unclear or cluttered with jargon, users may hesitate or abandon your site.
Relevance
Relevance aligns your products or services with the target audience’s specific needs. Demonstrate how your offerings solve problems or fulfill their desires. For example, if you sell handmade crafts, emphasize how they personalize homes or make ideal gifts. Include customer testimonials, blog posts, detailed product descriptions, and tailored recommendations.
To ensure your products are relevant, analyze customer demographics, psychographics (personality, values, attitudes, interests, lifestyle characteristics), and online behaviors. Use tools like customer surveys, competitor analysis, and keyword research to identify pain points and preferences. Track sales data, customer feedback, and website analytics to ensure product descriptions and sales funnels convert visitors into paying customers.
Continuously evaluate how well your website content resonates, and refine your strategies to improve relevancy using data and user feedback.
Credibility
Credibility seals the bond between your brand and your customers. When the end user is almost ready to make a purchase, you need to make sure they can trust your site, products, and company. If you don’t seem trustworthy, they might abandon their purchase.
Building trust and credibility requires transparency. Openly communicate your business practices and values through a detailed About Us page, accessible contact information, honest customer testimonials, a clear privacy policy, professional design, and security indicators or trust signals (like SSL certificates).
How to test website usability
Through user testing—observing specified users interacting with your site and completing tasks—you can assess your website’s effectiveness and identify areas for improvement. Here’s a quick guide to conducting usability testing:
1. Determine objectives
First, decide what you want to learn from usability testing. A clear goal ensures you choose the right testing approach. For example, are you trying to identify why your checkout process has a high bounce rate? Or understand how easily users can find sizing information or your return policy?
2. Recruit participants
Find representative users who match your ideal customer profile—those likely to buy your products. Filter your ideal customer pool to find a diverse sample that reflects various perspectives and behaviors. For example, if you sell hiking gear, test with beginner versus experienced hikers, day hikers versus multi-day trekkers, and seasonal versus year-round hikers. A broad mix within your target audience provides the most valuable feedback.
3. Define tasks
Have participants complete basic tasks related to your testing objective on your website. Base these tasks on realistic scenarios. For example, you could ask them to use the search function to find the product information for your vanilla-scented candle, add it to their cart, and proceed to checkout.
4. Observe user actions
Observation is at the heart of the testing process. Observe users closely as they interact with your website, noting where they succeed or struggle with your user interfaces. Let them try to solve any problems on their own, intervening only when necessary. Watch for hesitation points. Ask yourself: What works, what doesn’t, and why?
For measurable insights, track metrics like task completion rates, time on task, and bounce rates. Combine this data with direct feedback and qualitative observations (watching them perform tasks) to pinpoint areas needing improvement.
How to improve website usability for ecommerce
Once testing reveals where your website needs improvement, take action to enhance usability. Here are key areas to address:
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Mobile optimization. A responsive, mobile-optimized design fluidly adapts to different devices for a user-friendly experience. Prioritize fast loading speeds, touch-friendly navigation, and readability on smaller screens.
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Avoid overlays. Avoid distracting and disruptive pop-ups that appear automatically on top of a webpage’s content. Use less intrusive methods for promotions or alerts, like banners or strategically placed CTA buttons within the content.
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Readable text. Ensure text is legible by using appropriate font sizes, clear font choices, and sufficient contrast between the text and background. Overly decorative fonts and low-contrast color combinations can strain the eyes and hinder readability.
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Clear site logo. Make your logo a visually orienting anchor by placing it prominently and consistently on every web page and linking it back to the homepage.
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Page performance. The average online shopper expects web pages to load in seconds. Improve page load time by optimizing images, minimizing HTTP requests, browser caching, and streamlining code.
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Meaningful error messages. Think “user-friendliness” when it comes to error messages. Instead of the bland and meaningless “Error 404,” a friendlier and more helpful error message might say, “Oops! We can't find that page. Return to the homepage to try a different search.”
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Alt-tags for images. Add “alt” tags—short image descriptions in HTML code—to help visually impaired users understand the image and improve accessibility for screen readers.
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Keyboard navigation. Ensure navigation elements are accessible by keyboard for users with motor impairments who cannot use a mouse to point and click.
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Accessible forms. Give your form fields descriptive labels and concise instructions to help guide users, especially those using assistive technology.
Website usability FAQ
Why is website usability important?
A user-friendly website makes it easy to find products, navigate the site, and complete purchases, improving customer satisfaction and conversion rates.
How do you measure website usability?
Measuring usability involves tracking key metrics like task completion rates, time on task, and bounce rates, combined with gathering direct feedback from customers to identify areas for improvement and ensure a positive user experience.
What is a good usability test score?
While no single score can measure usability, a constant evaluation process tracking metrics like task completion, time on task, and user satisfaction can help you better understand why usability issues occur.
