The document provides guidance on auditing a website for usability issues. It discusses identifying target audiences and their goals, prioritizing content and navigation to balance goals and usability. Key parts of usability include navigation, content, and forms. Navigation should be clear and intuitive through labels, organization and mobile optimization. Content should be concise, scannable and accessible. Forms require proper fields and error messages. Usability can be tested through user tests, surveys and analytics to ensure the site meets users' needs.

1. Auditing Your Website
For Usability Issues
May 2013

2. Introductions…

4. Is Your Site Usable?

5. Why Should You Care About Usability?
Brainstorm what you
hope to accomplish with
your site. Almost all of
those things will be
boosted by a usable site

6. Your Website is You, Online
http://www.legal-aid.org

7. Your Mission:
Make your website easy to use.
Sounds straightforward, right? But…

8. Usable for Whom?
Who are your audiences?
Brainstorm– and then prioritize
• Those looking for
representation?
• Those with a question?
• Volunteer lawyers?
• Donors?
• Researchers?
• Politicians?

9. Usable to Do What?
Brainstorm what each audience is likely to want

10. Balance Your Goals vs. Your Visitors’

11. You Can’t Be All Things to All People
If you don’t prioritize, a usable site
will be difficult or impossible.

12. Thinking about Usability

13. There’s Three Core Parts to Usability
Let’s step
through them
one by one.
Forms
Content
Navigation

14. Thinking About Usability:
Navigation

15. How Will They Find What They Need?
How can you be sure that
your web visitors will be able
to find what they need?

16. The Homepage is a Map to the Site
Quickly show the types of things your visitors can see and do
http://www.iowalegalaid.org/

17. Don’t Try to Show Everything At Once

18. Prioritize
Choose only a few things to highlight on your homepage
http://www.illinoislegalaidonline.org/

19. Feature A Key Things with Teasers
Use clear “teasers” to direct
visitors, with a minimum of text

20. The Navigation is Key
Make sure they say what you want them to say

23. Remember Mobile Visitors

24. The Myth of Seven Things
…this is total nonsense.
Years ago, someone’s perfectly innocent research was co-opted
into meaning, “each list should include exactly seven things.”

25. Instead, Think About “Scent”
It doesn’t matter if it’s a lot of clicks if it’s easy and obvious to
know where to click next.

26. This Means the Wording of Labels is Critical
• Ensure your labels are
meaningful to users
• Better to be wordy than
vague

27. Don’t Fight Your Visitors
• Make it easy for them to do
what they want to do.
• Provide straightforward
navigational links for them.

28. Thinking About Usability:
Content

29. You Need Solid, User-Friendly Content
It doesn’t matter how easy it is
for users to find the right page
if the information itself is then
useless or baffling.

30. Start By Ensuring People Know What You Do
Simple, concise statements can be a very effective way to
communicate what you do.
http://www.ptla.org/

31. Provide Info People Really Want to Know
Put yourself in your user’s
shoes. What are the key
things they need to know?
What do they need to
make a decision?

32. More Text is Not Better

33. Be brief
Limit your paragraphs to a single topic. Cut word count in half or
more on general pages.

34. Make Text Scanable
Most people don’t read every
word of text on a website.
Rather, they scan the page
for the information they are
looking for, or something that
catches their eye.

35. “Chunk” Text for Ease of Scanning
Grouping related links simplifies the page and makes it easier to parse

36. Bullet Points
Bolding or visually highlighting keywords can help as well.
http://nwjustice.org

37. Equal Access
Make sure that everyone can
access and use your website
comfortably, including:
• Mobile Users
• Foreign Language
Speakers
• Disabled People

38. Create High Text Contrast
This is
beautiful, but
not very
readable.

39. Use Multimedia
Use captivating images, as well as audio and video links to explain
complicated issues for those who may have more trouble reading.

40. Thinking About Usability:
Form Design

41. Use the Right Form for the Job
Radio Buttons (select one)
Check Boxes (select some or all)
Dropdown (can save
space, if the options are
likely to be obvious)

42. Give Users Enough Space
Some users may have
long names, nine digit
zip codes, office
numbers, phone
extensions, and more.

43. But Keep Your Content In Check
• Are you going to use all of
this information?
• Will you alienate users with
too many questions?
• Can your users quickly
understand and answer
your questions?

44. Mandatory Fields
Make certain that mandatory
fields are clearly noted, and
that any error messages
clearly show the mistake.

45. How Do You Know if it’s Working?

46. How Do You Know if Your Site is Usable?
Ask people. Consider:
• User Tests
• Surveys
• Web Analytics
.

47. User Tests
Helps you understand how your site is being used by real
people to meet a goal.

48. Recruit Some People
Recruit 3-4 users for each
type of thing you want to
test. Ideally, get people
who would actually use
the site. But any testing
is better than none.

49. Just Sit Down With Them
Sit down with them in front of
a computer and your website.
Give them the mouse and
keyboard and let them drive.
Ask them what they’re
thinking.

50. Ask Them to Take on A Task
You could plan the task in
advance, or ask them to
think of one on the fly that
allows them to explore on
their own terms.

51. Try to Involve Your Whole Staff
Setting up a video camera to
record, or recording the screen
and an audio track, can be a
powerful way to ensure your staff
and board actually believe there
are limitations and challenges
with your site.

52. Or, Conduct a Survey
If you want lots of feedback on your website, but don’t have
much time, a survey can provide useful feedback at a high level.

53. Keep Them Short

54. Types of Surveys
Email a link to the
survey to your list
Intercept Surveys

55. SurveyMonkey

56. Numbers, charts, and graphs can help you understand whether
people are doing what you expect them to do
Web Analytics
Free Tool: Google Analytics

57. In Summary…

58. Balance Your Goals vs. Your Visitors’

59. Consider the Three Steps of Usability
Forms
Content
Navigation

60. Take a Closer Look At Some Sites
• Can you find what you’re looking for?
• Does it make sense?
• Can you easily scan?

61. Think About User Testing

62. More Resources
Don’t Make Me Think
User Interface Engineering
http://www.uie.com/articles/
Nielson Norman Group’s Alertbox
www.nngroup.com/articles/

63. Questions?

64. Consider Splitting It Up

65. Translatable Content
http://www.lafla.org