The first law of ecommerce is that if users cannot find the product, they cannot buy it either.įor intranets, usability is a matter of employee productivity. There are plenty of other websites available leaving is the first line of defense when users encounter a difficulty. Note a pattern here? There's no such thing as a user reading a website manual or otherwise spending much time trying to figure out an interface. If a website's information is hard to read or doesn't answer users' key questions, they leave. If users get lost on a website, they leave. If the homepage fails to clearly state what a company offers and what users can do on the site, people leave. If a website is difficult to use, people leave. On the Web, usability is a necessary condition for survival. Definition of Useful = usability + utility.Definition of Usability = how easy & pleasant these features are to use.Definition of Utility = whether it provides the features you need.To study a design's utility, you can use the same user research methods that improve usability.

It's also no good if the system can hypothetically do what you want, but you can't make it happen because the user interface is too difficult. Usability and utility are equally important and together determine whether something is useful: It matters little that something is easy if it's not what you want. A key one is utility, which refers to the design's functionality: Does it do what users need? There are many other important quality attributes.

Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?.

Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?.

Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?.

Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?.

Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design?.

Usability is defined by 5 quality components: The word 'usability' also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process. Usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use. This is the article to give to your boss or anyone else who doesn't have much time, but needs to know the basic usability facts.

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