Aug 072008
 

Websites are always a work in progress, and hopefully it’s for the positive. A while back I did a usability analysis on Best Web Hosting. To their good fortune they took much of my advice, and are now benefitting from some of it. Not all changes were made, but they have made a great first step.

Here are some of the items they worked on that gave those positive effects:

  • Created clear headings so that it is easier to scan site for information
  • Underlined and added the effect of color change on mouse over, for their hyperlinks
  • Links no longer open in new window
  • Relocated important items closer to the top of site for improved visibility

All of these items are usability issues. Many dismiss the idea of working on usability. Apparently the thinking is, don’t need, or I can afford to miss out on a little traffic because I am not doing everything perfectly. The thing is, it’s about improving your visitors experience, and if your site sucks, well…so does the traffic.

I’m glad to here things are improving for Best Web Hosting. They obviously understand the value of testing their site, and knowing what a visitor wants. You can help them out even more by taking their survey.

Mar 172008
 

Are you a webmaster looking for a site review? You might want to contact Excellent Reviews. Writing reviews about websites is all they do. This is easier said than done. Personally, I think this will be my last site review I will do for a while, unless the site has done very well on my Basic Usability and Design Analysis.

Excellent Reviews is an easy to use site in blog format. Archives are easy to find, and in regards to usability, it does fairly well. Most everything on the site is clearly defined, and hyperlinks are obvious. I think every post they made is on the home page, which I am not a big fan of, but I am sure there is a purpose. Lots of categories, and nearly one hundred reviews have been posted in 2008 alone. The webmaster took advantage of including the search function that typically comes with WordPress Blogs, and which is often forgotten by many blog owners. Having a search function on your website is important because it kicks in when your navigation fails. Imagine navigating though Google.

Writing site reviews has become a popular thing to do these days. For myself, doing reviews, I learn a lot about the thought process that went into building the site, or the lack of any thought that went into it. Typically, the quality of a site plan becomes evident to me when I do a review, and knowing the things that fail a website are important to me. Why would you get a review on Excellent Reviews? To let people know how great your site is.

NOTE: The links to Excellent Reviews have been removed. The site seems to be no longer there.