Bad Search
Exaggerated search engines decrease usability in that they are unable to handle typos, plurals, hyphens, and other variants of query terms. These types of search engines are bad and turn out to be very difficult for elderly users to use. A related problem is when search engines prioritise results purely on the basis of how many query terms they contain, rather than on each document’s prominence. It would be better for the search engine to call out best bet at the top of the list especially for important queries such as the names of the products.
Search is the user’s sustenance when navigation fails. In other instances advance searches can help, however the simple search is usually the one that works best. This is one of the reasons why searches should be presented in the most simplistic way so that it is easier for the user to find what they are looking for.
PDF Files For Online Reading
Research has found that the majority of users dislike coming across a pdf file when browsing. Because it usually a soul breaker and it breaks the search flow for the user when searching for specific information. Layouts are often enhanced for a sheet of paper, which rarely matches the size of the user’s browser window. Worst of all, PDF is an undifferentiated blob of content that is difficult to navigate. PDF is great for printing and for distributing manuals and other large documents. Reserve it for this purpose and convert any information that needs to be browsed or read on the screen into real web pages.
Not Changing The Colour Of Visited Links
A good understanding of past navigation helps one to understand your current location, since it’s the zenith of your journey. Knowing your past and present locations in turn makes it easier to decide where to go next.
Links are deemed a crucial influencer in the navigation process as users can skip links that they have viewed before and it makes it easier to go back to what they were looking for if they have searched for it previously.
These benefits only accrue less than one important assumption: users can tell the difference between visited and unvisited links because the site shows them in different colors. When visited links don’t change color, users exhibit more navigational disorientation in usability testing and do not deliberately revisit the same pages repeatedly.
Page Titles With Low Search Engine Visibility
Search is the most important way users discover websites. Search is also one of the most important ways users find their way around individual websites. The humble page title is your main tool to attract new visitors from search listings and to help your existing users to locate the specific pages that they need.
The page title is contained within the HTML <title> tag and is almost always used as the clickable headline for listings on search engine result pages.
Search engines typically show the first 66 characters or so of the title, so it’s truly micro content. Page titles are also used as the default entry in the Favourites when users bookmark a site. For your homepage, begin with the company name, followed by a brief description of the site.
For pages other than the homepage, start the title with a few of the most noticeable information carrying words that describe the specifics of what users will find on that page. Since the page title is used as the window title in the browser, it’s also used as the label for that window in the task bar under Windows, meaning that advanced users will move between multiple windows under the guidance of the first one or two words of each page title. If all your page titles start with the same words, you have severely reduced usability for your multi-windowing users.
At Interact RDT we offer UX reviews and UX competitor for web designs and Apps that can be performed at any stage of the development cycle and are especially useful in the early stages or when there is a specific query that needs to be addressed.