Are you familiar with the term “usability”? Many people use various Internet services, such as apps and websites, in their daily lives.
Usability is a very important point of view for those who use such Internet services. Usability is a very important factor, especially if you are providing any service over the Internet.
Therefore, this time I will explain the following topics.
People who use the Internet in their daily lives, such as those who conduct business or communicate on the Internet, should understand this.
What is usability?
Simply put, usability means “ease of use.” It is a term mainly used in the Internet world, and for example, searching in a 5G environment is faster and allows you to search more smoothly than searching in a 4G environment.
Additionally, it would be easier for users to use a smartphone app if its design and button placement were easy to understand at a glance. In this way, usability is important for users to use Internet services without stress.
The importance of usability
High usability is one of the key points for users to use products and services without stress. For example, a site with high usability will naturally have a large impact on conversions such as inquiries and requests for materials.
In addition, high usability is a very important factor in determining whether users will continue to use your website. No matter how good a product or service is, if it is designed with poor usability and cannot be accessed quickly, users will leave.
Usability corresponds to the customer service part of a restaurant business, just as if the staff at a restaurant provide good customer service, they will want to come back again or order other things. Pay close attention to usability to avoid big opportunity losses.
Usability related terms
There are many words related to usability. If you understand it along with related terms, you will not only be able to obtain higher quality usability, but you will also be able to think about things from a different perspective than usability.
accessibility
Accessibility is a word similar to usability. Accessibility, like usability, means ease of use, but the target audience is different.
Accessibility refers to ease of use for all users, including the elderly and people with disabilities. On the other hand, usability has a different scope because it is used to express ease of use only for “specific people who use it.”
For example, if you have a homepage for a new smartphone model, usability would be defined as “healthy people who come to the homepage and are interested in the new model.” However, when it comes to accessibility, the difference is that “all people, including the elderly and people with disabilities, who visit the homepage” are recognized as users.
Whether to focus on usability or accessibility to improve usability depends on the purpose of the site and how it is operated. In some cases, you may want to design your site with both accessibility and usability in mind.
In this way, accessibility can also be used to highlight usability, so it’s a good idea to consider and use it accordingly.
UI
UI is an abbreviation for “user interface”, which means the point of contact with the user. For example, in the case of a computer, the mouse, app icons, cursors, banners, hyperlinks, buttons, etc. are used to convey the user’s intentions to machines and software.
The better the UI is, the less attention is drawn to its existence, and the operations are often intuitive and designed to avoid stress on the user. In order to create a better UI, it is necessary to design with user characteristics as clear as possible, so be aware of user characteristics and
personas
.
Related materials
UX
UX is an abbreviation for “user experience” and refers to what users actually feel and experience through a product or service. For example, a familiar example is the experience of sharing videos and photos that you feel are good with others using the sharing function of SNS.
In addition, the ability to smoothly achieve search objectives such as purchasing, registering, and collecting information on homepages and LPs is also called UX. However, UX is a somewhat abstract term, and many businessmen think that UX is all the impressions that users get from the concept of actual experience.
UX is closely related to UI, and good UX is created from good UI, and users can experience it for the first time when there is no stress in using it. Therefore, be conscious of improving both UX and UI to improve usability.
Points to improve usability
There are several points to improve usability, and if you stick to them, you can easily increase the number of PVs and CVR. Please check it while keeping in mind that you will be able to use it on your own site or homepage.
Clarify your target
The most effective way to improve usability is to clarify your target. The UI and UX you should choose will change depending on what kind of people you are targeting, and the effective placement of buttons to increase CVR will also inevitably be determined.
Additionally, the usability of the same service will vary depending on the user target, environment, and user search purpose, so the target must be made clear. Therefore, rather than creating a service that appeals to everyone, designing a service that appeals to specific people will improve usability and actual satisfaction.
Think from the user’s perspective
You need to think about services from the user’s perspective. Naturally, the users who use the product decide whether or not the usability is high, so “how the users feel” is the most important thing.
For example, game product pages and homepages are designed with the user’s perspective in mind. Using the Super Mario Bros. homepage as an example, we first insert photos of characters and stages to give interested users a concrete image of the game.
It is very easy to understand as it introduces the synopsis of the game and introduces characters, items, dungeons, etc. using illustrations and photos. By creating a design that is easy to understand at first glance, we are able to further satisfy the needs of users who want to play right away.
Furthermore, we have prepared a page that introduces purchase buttons and other cassettes so that users who want to play the game can start playing right away. By designing from the user’s perspective, it is possible to cross-sell and upsell other products, so it can be said that it has the potential to generate various profits.
UI/UX tailored to the target
Another important point is whether the UI/UX is tailored to the target audience. UI and UX are also the point of contact with users, so you must design something that is suitable for your target audience.
For example, let’s say you were trying to purchase a game cassette on the Pokemon website. In extreme cases, if there were no Pokemon characters appearing at all, and the product descriptions were written on a blank white page, even the most interested users would get bored.
However, naturally, Pokemon product pages use various ingenuity, such as placing new and existing characters on the screen appropriately to attract interest, and inserting monster balls in the background. These UIs are designed to be user-friendly.
Furthermore, the UX has been devised so that you can view the product within the page without having to jump to another page with the URL, so that loading times are less likely to occur no matter how busy the page is.
In this way, even the overwhelmingly popular Pokemon has been designed with a UI that will entertain users who are interested in it, and a UX that will make them feel less stressed, so it is a good idea to refer to it.
perform analysis
To improve usability, you must perform analysis. Specifically, we recommend performing the following analysis:
If you only refer to either quantitative analysis or qualitative analysis, there are many cases where the results will not be highly satisfying for users, so be sure to analyze both types of data.
The more usable a site is, the more frequently it analyzes the data it collects and makes changes on a daily basis to respond to customer changes. In order to make accurate corrections, perform frequent analysis of the data you have obtained and strive to improve the accuracy of your analysis.
summary
Usability is a very important element in
web marketing
, and it can be said that usability and
marketing
effectiveness are correlated. When it comes to major companies, usability is such an important element that they often invest ample funds to differentiate their products.
In order to create sites and pages with as high usability as possible, it is important to make steady efforts, such as clarifying the targets introduced in this article and conducting detailed analysis.