Website Usability: The all important User Experience

What makes a quality  web site isn't always clear. Though the elements of a quality Web site often seem intangible, that quality is attainable. Determining usability requires iterative testing and learning. After years of gathering and studying clickthrough statistics on our web design projects, our design team is able to spot ways of improving conversion rates at 10 paces.

For instance, they say only 10 percent of all users ever scroll down a page. This is true, but only for navigational areas ("nodes"), such as the home page and directory-link pages. In those areas, scrunch the most interesting content into the top 640x480 pixels of the page to accommodate most VGA displays. The nature of the Web demands that important content be at the top of the page.

Leaf, or destination nodes are a different story—visitors want a large breadth of information on these pages and are perfectly willing to scroll. In fact, one study found that most users print long leaf-node documents, so scrolling is not an issue.

Giving your images height and width attributes can also make your visitors more willing to scroll. The text loads instantly, allowing the user to read while waiting for the images to load. Impatient users will scroll before waiting, seeking text back-up links at the bottom of the page.