It is a common knowledge that the Net grows and develops constantly. There are hundreds of websites launched every day, the competition grows and it’s harder and harder to make a visitor stay at a website. Make sure your website usability is good enough to bring comfort to your visitors so they stay at your website longer.
First of all avoid the inconsistent site-wide navigation. Navigation should stay the same throughout the website. Consider it an anchor that assures the user he won’t be lost. Make sure the navigation shows the list of locations to browse your website and the user’s current location.
Avoid registration required to view the site content. Hiding away valuable information won’t bring you more traffic, actually it’ll only frustrate the users and drive them away.
If you still need a registration make sure it isn’t too long. Don’t force your visitors to fill in looooooong forms, no one likes doing an extra job. So remove not necessary things from the form, the optional stuff can be filled out after the registration.
Make your texts easy to scan and read. No one will read a page of bold text, give your user something to focus on. Use pictures, paragraphs, large headlines so the user can easily find that specific thing he’s been looking for.
Make sure your site user can find your contacts if he feels a need to say he likes your website and appreciates your services. You do not have to give your phone number, a contact form will be okay.
All things mentioned above are important, but don’t forget the most essential for your success is the good and interesting content. Give your users what they need and they’ll appreciate your hard work.
What are other things to make a website more user-friendly you would suggest?
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Contact info is important. Solid contact information does more than facilitate sales, too. It bumps credibility a great deal. Too many folks are shy when they don’t need to be. Let people know how to get in touch and who/where you are!
I would suggest having a great theme design.
Make it look more simple so that the people who visit it will stay a bit longer.