Should usability be making a comeback?
As much as engagement is and has been one of the most important factors for the success of many websites, I think it’s important to put equal importance on usability and combine both metrics for site evaluation. Usability was at the end of the 90s and early 00s on everybody’s mind but then lost out to new technologies, SEO, social media etc.
The reason why I think usability should be an important factor in web-design is the short-comings of engagement as a standalone metric. Engagement is normally measured by time on a site or pages viewed or various other variables. More time on the site spent and page views are not necessarily a sign of success. It can also be a sign that the user has problems finding the information he is looking for, or has spent more time because videos or the site load slowly. By combining engagement with usability you are able to weed out the stopping blocks – like slow load times, technical issues, difficult navigation etc – that limit the success of a website
Entry Filed under: Engagement, Measurement
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