Usability is an important word for Web designers. It means just what it says making a site usable. Without usability, nothing else you do matters. What good is it to have wonderful content if nobody can find it? What good is it to have beautiful graphics on a page that is inaccessible except by luck? Fortunately, designing a usable Web site isn’t difficult, and a few simple rules set you on your way. As with any set of rules, you may want to break these from time to time, but by doing so can cause problems:

Keep your navigation system consistent on all the pages in your Website.

If you have a link to your home page at the top of half your pages and put the same link at the bottom of the rest of the pages, you may confuse your visitors.

Put links to your home page and your search function on both the top and bottom of every page. Too many Web designers put them on only the top or the bottom, forcing users to scroll to find them. Don’t make your visitors do extra work. Putting them on both the top and bottom of the page elevates this problem.

Never use blue, underlined text for anything but a link.

It’s better to try to avoid underlining at all. Use bold or italics for emphasis instead, otherwise, you may fool a lot of people into clicking that text to no effect.

Don’t use too many links in a navigation bar.

Half a dozen is about the most you should add. Remember that a navigation bar is not a site map but a guide to the major pages within your site.

Use words.

Using graphical icons may make your pages prettier, but you should design your navigation bar (or whatever alternative you use) to instantly communicate what it means to someone who hasn’t visited your site before. In this case, a picture is not worth a thousand words.

If your site is composed of hierarchical pages (and most of them are), consider using breadcrumb navigation.

The term comes from the idea of leaving a trail of breadcrumbs as you walk so that you can easily retrace your steps. When applied to a Web site, the metaphor refers to a listing at the top of the page showing the current page’s relationship to the hierarchy.

Adding a Search Function

Unless your site consists of just a single Web page, you need a search engine for it. Sites that don’t offer search functions are at a real disadvantage compared with those that do have them. Put yourself in a visitor’s shoes and ask, "Do I want to spend hours browsing this site in the hope that I may stumble across the information I want? Or do I want to spend a few seconds running a search to get the information I need right away?" Search engines are by far the best way for visitors to find the information they require on your website.

All of the search options which are available to use on your website, have their own strengths and weaknesses. The importance of each feature is a matter for you to decide. I recommend checking out as many as you can. Because none of them requires much effort to install and use, you may as well road-test a few to see which you like best.

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