Usability
Usability is about making products easier to use and matching them more closely to the customers' needs and requirements. Don't make the user think is a great leitmotiv which summarizes quite well its objectives, i.e. designing a product which is more efficient and pleasant to use and faster to learn.
Usability and Information Architecture are somehow related, but ultimately they differ in their scope and areas of focus. They both concentrate on context, navigation, search and labelling while Usability will also consider any issue regarding colors, text format or icons. In short, one is aimed at making the information findable while the other is about using this information.
Benefits
The key benefits of Usability are:
- Increasing user efficiency by designing a product which is easier to master (i.e. to learn and remember) and which requires less time and effort to accomplish tasks.
- Increasing sales and revenues since customer satisfaction will improve thanks to a product that provides the right functionalities the right way.
- Reducing support costs by building a product which is efficient and does not require any particular training or documentation.
How can I help?
There are different ways to approach usability on a web application and to work together to improve it. For example, I can :
- Audit an existing web application and make recommendations
- Help you during the design phase to make sure usability will not be a concern