{"id":260,"date":"2020-08-28T12:51:16","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T11:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.friezedesign.co.uk\/blog\/?p=260"},"modified":"2026-10-08T13:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T12:20:09","slug":"website-usability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.friezedesign.co.uk\/blog\/website-usability\/","title":{"rendered":"Website Usability"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“What it is and why it is so important”<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When we design websites, usability is always our top priority, above all else. But it’s shocking how many websites we see, where usability hasn’t been given a second thought. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Usability is intrinsic to good web design. If your website’s usability is poor – your website has been poorly designed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

All websites, regardless of their complexity, need to be usable for even the most technophobic and non-savvy of visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Website Usability Principles<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Much of what ensures a website’s design will be usable on completion, is discovered as part of the ‘design planning phase<\/a>‘. Each website will have unique aims and requirements, so usability will need to be tailored to fit. However, there are some essential usability principles that can be applied to any website<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Intuitive<\/h4>

Visitors to your website should know what to do without thinking. Methods we employ to help achieve this include: Well Structured Content<\/strong><\/em>Site-Wide Consistency<\/em><\/strong>Strong Cues and Labeling<\/em><\/strong>Dynamic Feedback<\/em><\/strong> (what a user should do next)L<\/em><\/strong>ogical Website Navigation<\/strong><\/em>Good, Clear Typographic Style<\/em><\/strong>Adopt <\/em><\/strong>Suitable <\/strong><\/em>Conventions<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/div><\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Inclusive<\/h4>

Different people, on different devices, in all kinds of different situations – your website needs to be available to them all. Unlike other media (print, TV), a website needs to be extremely flexible. Methods we employ to help achieve this include:Use Device Independent Coding Techniques<\/em><\/strong>Awareness of Device Properties<\/em><\/strong> (ex: touch\/cursor)Device Usage Scenarios<\/em><\/strong> (ex: outdoors\/indoors) Follow Recognised Accessibility Rules<\/em><\/strong>Optimise For Speed and Response Times<\/em><\/strong> (see below)Multi Device, Platform and Browser Testing<\/strong><\/em>Test Multiple Connection Speeds<\/em><\/strong> (WiFi\/3G\/4G\/5G)<\/p><\/div><\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Responsive & Nimble<\/h4>

Your website needs to be optimised so it loads quickly and instantly responds to the user’s interactions. Methods we employ to help achieve this include: Optimise Media For Fast Loading <\/strong><\/em>(Images, Video, etc.)<\/em>Minimise Server Requests<\/em><\/strong> (Merge files where possible)Remove Unnecessary Animations<\/em><\/strong> (Slow, lagging, clunky UI)Avoid Resource Hungry ‘Wow Factor’ Design<\/em><\/strong>Consider Overall Page Load<\/em><\/strong> (Combined file sizes)<\/p><\/div><\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Interested in seeing Usability\/UX in practice – Client Prototype<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we design websites, usability is always our top priority, above all else. But it’s shocking how many websites we see, where usability hasn’t been given a second thought. Usability is intrinsic to good web design. If your website’s usability is poor – your website has been poorly designed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[33,34,35,17,32,19,18,9],"class_list":["post-260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-web-design","tag-multi-device-web-design","tag-optimised","tag-responsive","tag-usability","tag-usability-principles","tag-user-experience","tag-ux","tag-website-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.friezedesign.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.friezedesign.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.friezedesign.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.friezedesign.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.friezedesign.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260"}],"version-history":[{"count":66,"href":"https:\/\/www.friezedesign.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1057,"href":"https:\/\/www.friezedesign.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions\/1057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.friezedesign.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.friezedesign.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.friezedesign.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.friezedesign.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}