Basic website usability checklist

Written by Joe on Thursday, August 26, 2010

Check your website usability with our basic website usability checklist

Before you launch your website, make sure you have these basics covered and you will ensure a pleasant experience for your users. These items are often over looked in the race to get a website live. But if you take the extra time and ensure that you have all of these covered, your users will have a much more enjoyable experience on your website.

Titles And Meta Data

For search engine optimization, your page title is one of the most important elements on your page. It also helps your users by letting them know what page they are on. Every page should have a unique page title that relates to the page content. Your title tag should look something like this:

<title>Fancy corners done the easy way, with jQuery! - Website Development NJ | Website Design NJ | Revolution Unlimited</title>

Meta description and meta keywords aren't as important to most search engines as they used to be, but using them won't hurt you. Include unique descriptions and keywords for every page based on the content of the page for the best results.

Cross-browser compatability check

Your site might look great in your favorite browser, but have you seen it from other users perspective? Some of the more popular browsers include IE8, IE7, IE6, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera; and you should ensure that your website looks good in all of them. Yes it is time consuming, and yes it may cause many headaches, but your users will be greatful when your website functions properly in their browser.

Proofread, proofread, and proofread some more

This is an item that I cannot stress enough. Make sure you proofread your content. Sloppy content, spelling errors, and gramatical errors will make you look less professional. The best approach to proofreading is to have someone else do it. Especially if you have written all of the content on your website. Have a co-worker or friend take a proofread your websites content.

Check all of your links

Another item that is often over looked: links. Do all of your links work properly? Have you checked them all, or do you assume since they look like a link they work? Go through your website and click on all of your links to ensure they work properly and link to the right page.

You should also ensure that your links look different from the rest of the text on your website. Give them a :hover effect to differentiate them and let the user know they should click on them. Also make sure your logo links to your home page. This is standard website practice.

Functionality Check

Does your website function properly? Test to ensure that contact forms, search functions, logins, etc. all function properly. Have others who have never used your website test and see how they interact with your pages. You'll be amazed at what you learn from watching others browse your website.

Validation

A valid website is a properly functioning website. Though it may not hurt if your website isn't 100% valid, fixing the major issues will help your website function properly across all browsers. Even if your website is valid, you should still check other browsers to ensure cross-browser compatability.

Protect your forms from spam

Test your forms to ensure that you can't submit blank forms or invalid data. Simple validation can easily reduce the amount of spam you may be getting. Ensure email addresses are entered correctly, phone number fields are the correct length, etc.. Simple validation will turn most spam bots away.

Create a favicon

A favicon is your website icon that appears in the address bar of you browser and when you bookmark a web page. Your favicon should be named favicon.ico and stored in the root directory of your website. Some browsers will automatically recognize and add your favicon, but for the rest you need one simple line of code.

To create a favicon, you can't just rename any image with the .ico extension. However, there are many free tools online that will allow you to upload an image and create the favicon for you to download. I like to use http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon/.

Test with javascript disabled

Javascript can add some really cool effects to your website, but will your site work with javascript turned off? Turning javascript off in firefox is simple. Make sure you take some time to ensure that your site functions properly with javascript on and off.

Install analytic software

Analytic software is used to see how your website is performing. The most popular, Google Analytics, is free and easy to set up. Using analytic software you can track unique visits, page views, popular content, keywords, traffic sources and much more.

Get a XML sitemap

XML sitemaps allow search engines to easily index your content. Rather than having to crawl your entire website, your sitemap will tell the search engine spider what content is new and when your content was last updated. Your sitemap.xml file should be in the root directory of your website. You can create a free xml sitemap at http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/index.php.

Include a 404 page

When a user requests a page that doesn't exist, they are directed to the 404 page. Your 404 page should include useful information to the user. Let them know that they reached a page that does not exist and suggest some pages that they might find useful. Tell them to try searching for the content they are looking for using your search function.

Page load time

A page that takes to long is a ticket for your users to leave. Make sure your website loads quickly. User are impatient and if your website takes too long to load they will go to another website.

Even if your website didn't meet all of these requirements at launch, it's not too late. You can still upgrade your website to make you user experience more enjoyable for all of your users across all platforms. Contact us if you need help making your website more usable and enjoyable for your users.