Website surveys consistently confirm that poor navigation is the most frustrating aspect of surfing. Some disturbingly report up to 70% of visitors failing to find what they are looking for.
The most common problem is caused by programmers tucking pages and links into obscure locations. These may seem entirely logical to them - but not to you. To make matters worse, they also don't offer alternative ways to get at this material.
Supposing we access a website of a major corporate to find out the chief executive’s name, but the programmer chooses to put this material in the 'Financials', rather than under 'Head office' or 'About us'. Most people would be looking in the wrong place.
To counteract this shortcoming, top priority needs to be given to:
- site architecture content placement
- identifying what people want
- positioning it logically
- offering links from other locations
- fine-tuning the navigation using web page traffic access
Content hierarchies need to be drawn up to ensure that all the target audiences can readily access the material they most need. This needs to be resolved right at the outset. It's simply too costly and time-consuming to totally restructure a website at a future date. Getting this wrong is simply not an option.
... it is pointless spending hours writing material, getting it approved then finding that no one is able to find
usability testing is essential
Once the website has been programmed it needs rigorous 'usability' testing, initially by an inhouse audience and then with a cross-section of the external audience.
The audience can be asked to locate specific items of information and then time them to see how long it takes. Their more general comments can be recorded too and the site fine-tuned to take their commenst aboard.
But just how many people should be involved in usability testing? A cynic might reply ‘until every problem has been identified’ - whether that takes 10 or 100. There are no hard and fast rules. And usability testing, may not identify all the issues with some still going undetected for months after a site has gone live.
From a communicator's point of view it is pointless spending hours writing material, getting it approved and then finding that no one is able to find it. Usability testing is essential and yet many web developers fail to carry it out.