The Quick Ten
The latest developments in Usability/Accessibility
Remote usability testing
An increasing number of brands are using remote usability testing, which allows them to run larger, geographically diverse tests with participants online.
Less interest in eye tracking
Two years ago, many brands were incorporating eye tracking into usability projects, but now its popularity has dipped as marketers realise its limits, claims Trenton Moss, director at Webcredible.
Free prototyping tools
A number of free online prototyping tools such as Balsamiq are entering the market, allowing companies to create, share and refine wireframes quickly and cheaply.
Personalised content
Margaret Manning, chief executive of Reading Room, believes there will be an increase in the use of browser-based personalisation tools such as Google Autofill, making the process of filling in forms fast and efficient.
Focus on SEO
Testing a website’s natural-search optimisation is a good measure of its usability. SEO has already become a core objective of a website’s development, and this trend is expected to continue.
Persuasive design
Marketers have to make it easy for users to make the right choices on websites. This could be a charity website making its ‘donate’ button a different colour to make it obvious, or the user thinking they have purposely selected something on the page. In reality, they will have been led there by design.
Thinking accessibility
Much like usability, many brands are now thinking about accessibility as soon as they start to consider a website revamp
User-generated content
A rise in social media and user-generated content is presenting challenges for accessibility. There is not yet a recognised way of guaranteeing the accessibility of user-generated content.
Total customer experience
What works in one channel does not translate directly to others, but key information about the motivations, needs and aspirations of the consumers can be shared, says Jon Dodd, managing director and founder of Bunnyfoot.
More than box-ticking
Brands are now seeing accessibility as part of the user experience, rather than as just criteria.
Second Opinion
The fact that online has overtaken TV as the UK’s biggest advertising platform re-emphasises the importance of the web in the future of marketing and business. As a result, now is an exciting time for web usability and accessibility.
The huge growth of multimedia sites, with richer and more complicated interactions, has made the web a more compelling proposition. However, this in itself creates usability and accessibility challenges. No doubt as a direct result of the recession, more organisations are jumping on the usability bandwagon and trying to do it in-house when they do not necessarily have the expertise at their disposal. Although this may be cheaper, it is unlikely to get the desired results.
Instead, companies need to concentrate on basing website developments on solid user research and usability testing. In the same vein, when it comes to accessibility, many companies are now going beyond just -box-ticking and are starting to look closely at real-world accessibility issues and incorporating these into website developments from the start.
As online continues to increase both in importance and competition, good site usability and accessibility can be one of the last bastions of differentiation from all your competitors.
It is therefore crucial that companies invest the time and finances needed to integrate the essential usability and accessibility features and best practice into their website design and development processes.
Trenton Moss is the director of Webcredible