Usability

There are several key questions to ask yourself when you are analyzing your website's usability. Is the navigation clear and easily found? Can I get back to Home from every page? Is it obvious what my site is about? Can I get anywhere in the site within 2-3 clicks in a logical and intuitive manner? Is the contact information readily available from every page?

The broad definition of usability as defined in Wikipedia is:

1. Present the information to the user in a clear and concise way.
2. To give the correct choices to the users, in a very obvious way.
3. To remove any ambiguity regarding the consequences of an action e.g. clicking on delete/remove/purchase.
4. Put the most important thing in the right place on a web page or a web application.

Sometimes you'll see a website where everything visually has about the same weight. You've been there, your eyes are jumping everywhere and you don't know where to look first and before you know it - CLICK - you're looking for another site that's easier to read, less confusing, so you can find what you're looking for.

That's NOT what you want your visitors to do. It's not about how many seconds they stay on your site before they leave, it's about how much they comprehend. If your visitor realizes they can get what they are looking for they will stay, click, scroll, and read.

If your site has some of these challenges, it may not be the end of the world. If you already have built a database driven site - which you should have - all you may need to do is "skin it" (that would be changing up the template using CSS and a keen and intuitive eye).