Why Usability Is So Important for Your Website

Website usability means that users can reach their goals without frustration, overthinking, or detours—whether their goal is to get information, make a purchase, download something, or get in touch. The easier and smoother your website is to use, the more likely visitors are to stay—and come back. 

Good usability not only saves time but also builds trust and improves the perception of your company or brand. Especially in the digital market, just a few seconds often determine whether someone stays or leaves. Therefore, it's crucial that your website is logically structured, easy to understand, and technically impeccable—for all users, on every device.

In this article, we'll provide you with an overview of the fundamentals of website usability, explain why it's so important, and outline which aspects you should consider.

What is Usability?

Usability can be translated as "usability" and describes the ability to achieve the desired result without difficulty. The term "user-friendliness" is also often used. Optimal usability means that a product, service, or website fulfills its intended purpose precisely.

On a website, this could mean a completed purchase, the provision of relevant information, strengthening your brand, etc., depending on the intention. Usability is a key factor in determining whether and to what extent visitors engage with your website content or move on to another site. It is an important factor in customer satisfaction and website quality. A usability analysis can help identify errors, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement on the website.

What does Usability encompass?

Website usability includes all aspects that affect the user-friendliness of a website—how simple, understandable, efficient, and pleasant it is to use. Many factors interact to create a positive user experience.

Specifically, they include:

• Navigation and Structure: Clear page layout (e.g., an easy-to-navigate menu, logical hierarchy), simple, logical navigation, breadcrumb navigation, and an easily searchable effective search function

• Layout and Design: A consistent layout across all pages, a visual hierarchy (important elements stand out), responsive design (works on all devices), and appropriate use of colors, font sizes, and spacing

• Content and Language: Clear, understandable language, relevant, up-to-date content, good readability (paragraphs, titles, lists), and accessibility (e.g., alt text, contrasts, keyboard accessibility)

• Interactivity and Feedback: Meaningful feedback (e.g., after clicks, forms), helpful and friendly error messages, and buttons and links that are clearly recognizable

• Loading Times and Performance: Fast loading times of pages and content and technical stability (no crashes, malfunctions)

• Accessibility: Support for screen readers, keyboard operability, good color contrasts, and scalable font sizes

• Trust and Security: SSL encryption, transparent data protection information, and a professional appearance (e.g., legal notice, contact information)

• Conversion Support: Clear calls to action (e.g., "Buy Now," "Learn More"), no distractions from the actual purpose of the page, and support for processes like forms or checkout

What are the Goals of Website Usability?

The goals of website usability are aimed at designing websites so they can be used effectively, efficiently, and satisfactorily by users. Interaction should be as intuitive as possible to lead to the desired outcome. Jakob Nielsen - one of the leading experts on usability, who has been studying the topic for decades - developed 5 key criteria of usability:

1. Learnability

Goal: New users should be able to quickly understand and use the website. Navigation, structure, and functions must be intuitive.

Example: A first-time visitor immediately understands where to find information or how to make a purchase.

2. Efficiency

Goal: Experienced users should be able to complete their tasks quickly and effectively. Optimized workflows, fast loading times, and clear paths lead to goal achievement.

Example: A repeat customer can reorder with just a few clicks.

3. Memorability

Goal: Users who haven’t visited the website for a while should be able to easily use it again. This is helped by consistent design, familiar symbols, and a logical structure.

Example: A user remembers how to find customer support even after weeks.

4. Errors (Error Prevention and Handling)

Goal: The website should be as error-tolerant as possible and help users avoid or correct errors. This can be achieved through clear and understandable error messages, opportunities for correction, or well-thought-out forms.

Example: An incomplete form clearly indicates what is missing without deleting all input.

5. Satisfaction

Goal: Using the website should be a pleasant experience and generate positive feelings. An appealing design, useful content, and easy navigation lead to higher satisfaction among users.

Example: A user-friendly interface with clear texts provides trust and enjoyment while using the site.

How Can Usability Be Measured?

Measuring usability means systematically evaluating the user-friendliness of a product or website using specific criteria, tasks, and user tests. While usability is partly subjective, it can be objectively measured if you use the right methods. Aspects of the above five listed criteria - learnability, efficiency, memorability, error prevention, and satisfaction - are often tested.

Various methods are employed for measurement:

• Usability tests with users who have to perform specific tasks

• Questionnaires filled out by users after a test

• An expert examination based on specific criteria (does not replace user testing)

• Analysis of analytics and user behavior through web analysis tools, heatmaps, or mouse tracking

• A/B testing - different versions are tested against specific questions and data

Why is Usability Important?

There are numerous positive impacts of good website usability and just as many reasons why you should pay attention to good user-friendliness. It makes it easier for users to navigate your website, helps you stand out from the competition, and enhances the impression you leave on potential customers. Let's take a closer look at the individual reasons:

Users Want to Be Guided

A good website makes it easier for users to navigate. It allows them to quickly get to their desired goal (completing a purchase, downloading a document, finding the needed information) without thinking too much. The offered content should be self-explanatory in terms of the positive user experience.

In fact, users don't want to think about how to do something on a website. They want to be guided and don't want to search laboriously for certain elements and "discover" the website on their own.

They want to intuitively reach their desired goal as quickly as possible.

The content offered needs to be self-explanatory for a positive user experience, and any interactive elements should be directly usable.

Website Usability as a Competitive Factor

The lack of willingness to stay on a website just because is partly due to the market situation. In the online world, a competitor is just one click away. Unlike a physical shopping street, there's no need to walk past a series of stores. The reality is usually different. Most companies don’t have the luxury of offering something so unique (services, physical products, digital products like apps) that users would endure a cumbersome website.

Instead, well-prepared and easily accessible website content has the power to convince users to complete conversions on your site rather than a competitor's, making usability a crucial competitive factor.

Your website needs to make a good impression from the first second. Many website owners are unaware that users often judge the entire company based on their first impression of the website. A poorly maintained website can negatively impact the entire company's image.

Users might question whether the company is capable of offering good service if it can't even manage to keep basic things on the website in order. While this assumption is often incorrect, it illustrates the potential consequences of poor website usability.

Usability is More Than Just Good Design

The challenge in website design is that it's unlike any other medium because people often have different expectations for how websites are used versus how they're actually used. When website owners and designers sketch out a site, they have a certain image in mind. It's often assumed that users will study all the content thoroughly.

But in reality, users often only skim through a page initially. They quickly scan the text and click on the first link that seems interesting or appears to be the closest to their searched goal. As a result, a large portion of the page might not be actively noticed by your users.

How users read a webpage greatly depends on their goal in mind. They focus on words and phrases that match their personal interests, known as trigger words. If they don't find these on your website, it can still be beautifully designed and contain seemingly informative content, but it won’t hold their interest.

Technical Performance is Part of Usability too

Besides graphical design, technical preparation is a key aspect of usability. While large images, videos, interactive graphics, and other moving elements may look visually appealing, they significantly increase loading time. The problem is not all users have access to a fast internet connection. Ideally, a good load time is important for two main reasons: it reduces the chance that visitors lose patience and leave the website, and page load time is becoming an increasingly important ranking factor for search engines.

Usability Engineering

Usability engineering is a structured and systematic process for developing user-friendly systems, where the usability of a product—or, in this case, a website—is deliberately planned, tested, and improved throughout the development process. This means that usability should ideally be considered from the conception of a website or a relaunch. Good usability doesn't happen by chance; it's systematically planned and tested.

SEO and Usability – A Strong Team

SEO ensures the necessary flow of traffic through organic search results. But you shouldn't focus solely on generating traffic. Without usability, your visitors will quickly leave again, often without converting. If you only focus on usability, you will reach a significantly smaller group of visitors who may convert well, but due to the small number, may not generate enough revenue to financially sustain the company behind it.

Choosing usability doesn't necessarily mean writing off SEO. If you think SEO is just about ranking first in Google's organic search results and driving traffic to the website, you're not thinking broadly enough. SEO measures aim not only for top placement in search results but also ensure that users can find their way around the site. This goal is shared with usability.

Classic OnPage SEO measures include, for example:

• Clear page structure

• Logical navigation

• Breadcrumbs and HTML sitemaps

• Pagination

• Avoidance of 404 error pages

• Logical internal linking

On closer inspection, it becomes clear that these points simultaneously significantly improve user navigation. So, there are indeed significant intersections between the two online marketing disciplines, which do not contradict each other. Good SEO specialists and user experience managers are aware of this close connection and ensure that all elements of the website complement each other effectively.

Website Usability and Accessibility/Accessibility

In the context of website usability, the topic of accessibility is also important. Both disciplines pursue the same goal of facilitating the use of websites, but they are approached from different perspectives: Usability aims to improve user-friendliness for as many people as possible. Accessibility seeks to make the website fully usable for people with disabilities (especially visual and hearing impairments).

Numerous measures improve both web usability and accessibility (for example, a clear structure and understandable language or good contrasts). Accessibility also requires compliance with technical standards such as the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), including screen reader compatibility or alternative texts for images.

Since the Accessibility Enhancement Act, you should assess (or have assessed) whether your website is not only user-friendly but also accessible. This is important to ensure that people with disabilities can use your website without restriction.

Usability issues usually only become apparent when expected conversions don’t occur. Retrospective improvements can be expensive or, in extreme cases, unworkable. That's why you should focus on a good user experience at the launch or relaunch of your website.

However, this doesn't mean that you should completely disregard usability in favor of SEO. Those who believe that SEO is only about ranking first in organic search results and driving traffic to the website are thinking too narrowly. In addition to good placement in organic search results, SEO measures also aim to ensure that users can navigate the website. This goal is shared by search engine optimization with usability.