6 Key UX Factors to Gauge the Effectiveness of Your Website

Written by: Phillip Nones

It was information architecture and industry guru Peter Morville who identified the major factors that characterize the “user experience” for any product or service in the marketplace.

Those very same “UX” factors can be applied to your company’s online presence to help you achieve your objectives – whether that’s increasing product sales, providing information, educating your audience, or some other goal. Here’s what they are:

Useful – If your web presence isn’t useful, why bother having it? “Usefulness” is in the eye of the beholder – practical and non-practical benefits alike. Make sure your website is aligned with expectations.

Usable – How well does your website enable visitors to get what they want from it, effectively and efficiently?

Findable – How easily is information about you and your products accessible online? Findability is critical to a positive user experience, but many websites fail to deliver. Related to this, if your website isn’t well-ranked in search engines, many people won’t even be aware of it. So pay attention to SEO/SEM factors, too.

Credible – Is the information on your website – including your product or service claims – believable? If your messaging stretches credulity, you’ll find that visitors won’t stick around for long.

Desirable – It helps if your brand is known as the biggest or best one in your field. But even if that isn’t the case, your website can help increase your brand’s image and desirability through good design and aesthetics.

Valuable – Ultimately, your website and other online presence should deliver value. How “value” is defined is a function of the business you’re in and the expectations of the people who use your products and services. Without value inherent in your website, people who land there won’t engage with it very long – nor will you be able to move them to the next levels of interest, desire and action.

The performance of a website depends a combination of all of these user experience factors. The more you can address them, the more successful you’ll be.