There’s probably nothing more frustrating to someone searching the web then coming across a website that’s difficult to navigate and isn’t very user friendly. If you’re an owner of a website, you should want your site to be intuitive and not overly-complicated to navigate. If visitors become frustrated with your website and it’s cluttered, they’re not likely to return and so you’ve lost yourself a reader or customer. This is where being knowledgeable in how to build a user friendly website can come in handy.
One of the most important factors that can play into ensuring your website is user friendly is making sure that you have a simple navigation that’s easy to find and easy to follow. You should name each of your webpages appropriately and make sure that your sub navigation (if applicable) relates to the main navigation. If you’re a larger site that has more webpages to put into navigation, be careful to avoid cluttering the main navigation by creating a smaller navigation.
Aside from having an easy navigation, the website layout also plays an important role on determining how user friendly a website is. Your website’s layout should be clean and simple. Your visitors should be able to easily find information and navigate their way throughout your site. Confusing and complicated layouts are one of the top reasons websites lose traffic and potential customers.
Not only should your layout be clean and simple, it should also be visually appealing to visitors. While you don’t want to clutter your site with too many graphics, a few well-placed images can make a site more attractive.
Adding search functionality is another great way to ensuring your visitors will be satisfied as they navigate through your website. Adding a search bar allows visitors to easily find specific information they may be looking for and can save time from having to search all over your site for it when you’ve made it easy for them to find. Of course, the search bar itself should be easy to access and should appear on the home page of your website.
It’s also a good idea to make it easy for visitors to contact you. Placing your email, phone number, any information of contact that you would like your visitors to have, should be in the footer so it appears on every page of your website; making it easy to find by any visitor who wishes to obtain that information.
A user friendly website may also load faster, helping to prevent visitors from becoming impatient and leaving your site. Other things you can do may include ensuring that you have a good host, adequate bandwidth, and avoiding excessive page elements that can slow your site down.