Usability
A usable website enables visitors to acquire the information they need quickly, easily and without placing them under an unnecessary effort.
The content, information architecture and design of websites, software applications, online information systems and more, can significantly affect the ease with which users can achieve their goals when online.
What is usability?
The Web Accessibility Initiative clarifies the overlapping of usability and accessibility on the web as:
“Usability is about making products easy to use. Accessibility focuses on designing products so that people with disabilities can use them…”
Why is usability important?
People's perception of ECU is significantly influenced by their interaction with our website. If relevant content on our website is easily located and is written to be easily understood by our visitors, their experience of ECU will be positive.
If information required by visitors proves difficult to locate or difficult to understand once found, our visitors may experience frustration and leave with a negative perception of ECU.
What does this mean for you?
The ECU WebCMS defines the fonts, text sizes and colour, page design and elements to ensure that the ECU website meets the international usability and accessibility guidelines set by the World Wide Web Consortium.
As an author or editor, you can safely edit your online content through the ECU WebCMS without the need or ability to change or alter these styles or formats.
If you produce content for the ECU website, you should understand the concepts of accessibility and usability, and their application to the web content you author.
For more information about website validation for usability, see our Resources web pages.