Usability is Ease of use means ease of use when users use products and services. For search users, usability is the ease of viewing and usability when viewing a web page.
If this usability is improved, a good effect of SEO can be expected.
On the other hand, poor usability leads to poor user experience (UX).
For example, let’s say you have a site where the menus and buttons are difficult to locate, the text is too small to read, the color scheme is unnatural, and it takes a long time to display the page.
The site is unwieldy for users and leaves a bad impression on users.
If so, it will be difficult to be evaluated by Google.
As a result, the search ranking does not rise, and it becomes difficult to increase search inflow.
To avoid these bad situations, understand the definition of usability and use it correctly as a metric.
Based on this point, this time, I would like to explain the points that are easy for beginners to understand, focusing on the meaning of usability and the difference from accessibility.
Table of Contents
What is usability?
Convenience and operability of the pageIt mainly mean usability and understandability, and especially in the case of web pages, it is an element deeply related to UI such as recognition, identification, and visibility of buttons and menus.
This usability does not directly affect search rankings, but it is an important point that should be improved in content marketing in the future.
And as for the definition… As mentioned above, there are many vague points in the strict sense, but as a whole, there is no problem in terms of convenience and usability. It is no exaggeration.
(Roughly speaking)
If you refer to the following page, it doesn’t seem to be strictly defined, but as meaning, it focuses on the UI (user interface) of the web page, and the layout, color scheme, and operability of the buttons. The most important point is the user-friendliness of the detailed components, and in some cases, it is an important factor that causes people to leave due to “difficult to understand” or “difficult to use”.
With such a site/blog, search users do not think that they will flow in again.
* The views of “ISO 9241-11” and “Jakob Nielsen” also seem to differ slightly.
In order to improve this, it is necessary to pay attention to detailed elements such as appropriate margins and easy-to-see colors, and it is important to evaluate the index values before and after the change and continue to improve.
For example, the loading speed of the page is one of them, and if the display is extremely slow, the user will leave immediately. In other words, no matter how much attractive content is created, if the web structure does not take usability into consideration, users will move to search for other sites.
As you can see, usability covers a wide range of elements, and the definition is not clear.
Therefore, although it is a slightly different element from measures to improve search rankings, no matter how much inflow you have, if usability is poor, it will affect subsequent conversions, and of course, it will affect revisiting in terms of branding. It will be difficult to increase the number of repeaters who give me.
In addition, as the purpose of improving this “usability”, the following content can be considered for web pages, and although it may indirectly affect search rankings, it is not an element that attempts to improve SEO. Remember that. (Elements that increase user usability and satisfaction)
- Increase the conversion rate of the entire site
- Read ahead from the first view
- Building leads to increase conversions
- Make it easier to reach the target page
In this way, usability is to make a web page easier to use, but it is not a general term for simply improving the UI.
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Strictly speaking, UI means screens and mechanisms that allow users to interact with web pages, and usability means ease of use and convenience for specific users, and both are similar but different. Therefore, it is necessary to understand each of them thoroughly, find areas for improvement, and take countermeasures. (You could also say that there is no UI that works for everyone.)
Definition in ISO 9241-11
First, as I explained at the beginning, let’s talk about the definition of “usability” according to the International Organization for Standardization’s “ISO 9241-11”.
Here, usability is expressed as “the degree of effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction with which a product is used by specific users to achieve specified goals in specific usage situations.” The following items are listed.
- effectiveness
- efficiency
- Satisfaction level
- Usage situation
In other words, usability is not something that can be simply explained in words such as ease of use and convenience.
As it seems that UX is also mentioned in this area, usability has a similar meaning to web marketing. Actions to make things easier to sell It seems that you place importance on effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction as usage conditions.
In other words, usability is defined as effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction, and whether users can reach their ultimate goal when using “things”, not just web pages. What was the degree of each when you arrived? You can see that it does not simply mean ease of use.
Defined by Jacob Nielsen
Next, regarding the definition of usability by Dr. “Jacob Nielsen”, first of all, this person is widely known as a leading person in usability research as follows, and mainly defines “ISO 9241-11” It is no exaggeration to say that he is a highly credible person when explaining usability.
Jakob Nielsen defines usability as follows, and although the expression is a little difficult to understand, there are many similarities with the definition of “ISO 9241-11” above, and it is “easy to learn”. “Efficiency”, “Efficiency”, and “Ease of Memorization” can be taken to mean the same thing as “Effectiveness” and “Efficiency”.
- Ease of learning
- Efficiency
- easy to remember
- error
- subjective satisfaction
In addition, there is an item called “error”, which literally means that if an error occurs, a lead or guidance such as the correct way to deal with it is necessary. If you manage and operate a site, it is a natural item to avoid.
Also, items such as “subjective satisfaction” also apply to “satisfaction” in “ISO 9241-11”. As you can see, usability is a combination of “use” and “ability,” which translates literally to “being able to do XX,” and has a slightly different meaning from simply referring to convenience.
The difference between usability and accessibility
Another term that tends to be mixed with usability is “accessibility”. free, etc.).
And accessibility as a web page means making the content easy to read, especially for people with disabilities, as follows. An alt tag that is a read-aloud function or set for an image and so on.
I will omit the HTML structure related to this area, but it can be said that accessibility should be considered especially for the sites of public institutions and influential people and organizations.
The difference between usability and UI
When we talk about usability, we often hear “UI (user interface)”.
The meaning of this is completely different from convenience, etc., and it has the meaning of the interface (point of contact) between two parties such as users and services, and it does not simply refer to excellent design.
In other words, UI is to improve usability (effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction), and in the case of the Internet, aside from design, it means the web page itself, for better or worse.
For example, when making a reservation or purchasing something on a web page, have you ever had the experience of not being able to make a payment because the meaning was unclear or you were at a loss as to what to choose? Such pages are not easy to use…you could say that the UI is bad. If there are other problems with operability such as ticket vending machines, it can be said that convenience is also poor, so it is not possible to satisfy user satisfaction due to UI.
The point is to work on improving the UI to improve usability, Increase the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction of web pages from the user’s point of view That’s what it means. It may sound a little complicated, but the word usability originally started, and it’s like a metric derived to improve it.
Therefore, in the case of web marketing, UI means a wide variety of page screens such as buttons, menus, breadcrumbs, and margins that consider readability. Repetition is important.
If we measure and verify various indicators of these pages using analysis tools such as analytics and succeed in improving usability, it will greatly affect the completion rate of each form and the number of clicks on important buttons. It is also important to understand the meaning of each.
The difference between usability and UX
Next, in order to deeply understand usability, it is also a good idea to remember terms such as UX (user experience).
This literally translates to “user experience,” which may be a little difficult to understand as it is, but in a nutshell, A general term for usability and ease of use that users feel through web pages and “things” Point to and imagine the convenience that the user feels for the UI.
Taking these things into consideration, in the case of a web page, first, there is the point of contact and contact with the user, such as the UI. I think you can.
Because the term was originally derived from the word usability in this way, the difference between them is very ambiguous and difficult to understand, and it is simply recognized as “convenience and ease of use.”
Also, in order to improve the UX, it is necessary to improve the UI, and it depends on the improvement points as to what kind of numerical value is evaluated as an index. For example, there is a high possibility that this content with high UX is on the page of a competitor that is displayed at the top, and it is thought that the search engine will display it at the top due to the satisfaction and understanding that the user can obtain from the content and the problem-solving. can be (Of course, that’s not all.)
However, such improvements in UI and UX cannot be simply measured by staying time.
This is all about concentrating on high-quality content, which is the essence of Google, so make content useful for users in an easy-to-understand manner by doing so, the length of stay will naturally increase, and if the content is sufficiently satisfying and understandable, the user will complete the action of “searching” without transitioning to another page.
Such user satisfaction is a part of usability and becomes UX, so let’s emphasize the importance of deep digging into content after understanding the meaning of each term firmly.
How to improve the usability
As mentioned above, it is important to constantly improve this usability. For example, even on a certain recipe site, the UI has been modified countless times, and in many other apps, the UI is often changed with each version upgrade. It is quite possible that more benefits can be obtained than increases.
The reason for this is that web marketing in the future will not be able to do anything just with the amount of traffic it used to have, and it will be necessary to create content for the necessary users as appropriate. If you rely only on attracting customers like marketing, sales will not grow as expected.
For example, the same can be said for mobile browsing, and even though the resolution has become larger than before, small elements are arranged by trial and error to create visibility, colors, and a comfortable UI. By doing so, we aim to create an easy-to-use page, and as a result, users will feel that it is highly convenient, and if it is an excellent site, they will visit it again. It will also serve as proof.
In addition to making icons that convey what kind of content exists on the page at a glance, as well as unifying and coherent site design, we also find issues as needed and change the UI to improve usability based on UX reactions. It would be nice to have an image of what you want to do.
Therefore, to improve usability, hypothesize the problems that browsing users have, and what figures should be used as indicators to improve them. In order to achieve this, various measures are repeatedly verified one by one, and finally, a highly effective UI is adopted. Of course, usability is not limited to improving the UI, so it is also necessary to brush up on the content itself, and it is important to periodically check the effectiveness of the site from various perspectives.
Conclusion: Understand the definition of usability and use it correctly as a metric
This time, I explained in detail the correct meaning of “usability”, which has connotations such as convenience and ease of use, the difference between UI and UX, and ways to improve it.
In this way, usability does not simply mean “convenience”, but there are various factors such as the user’s satisfaction with the web page. Washing it out is important.
Especially recently, mobile searches have become more common than PC searches, so we have focused on UIs that allow you to quickly find the content you want to know even on a small screen, and on making pages that are easy to see and read. A seamless design will be required for non-users.
It goes without saying about this area, but we should pursue ease of use and satisfaction for all “things”, including web pages. The result is usability.
Of course, content that satisfies the user’s search intent is a major premise, and page creation that takes into account effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, etc. is also becoming more important, so we would like to regularly improve the content and eventually guide it. Are you getting to the page? It is also important to check the user’s behavior on the page.