What is a Usable website?

Website usability is a massive area of study but basically it relates to making web content easy to access for a wide range of users, including those with disabilities.

In general terms, any website should be easy to use. By that we mean that users should be able to understand and use the site's navigational system to find what they want easily - without becoming lost or disoriented as they move around. It also means that a website should be logically ordered and that content is located where users expect to find it. Colours, font sizes and intuitive navigation all play a part in this process as do the proper labelling of images and naming of internal and external links (not everybody has images turned on in their browsers and 'click here' links convey no meaning about where they are linking to).

This emphasis on clarity is even more important when ensuring that a site can be used effectively by disabled visitors. For instance, screen readers are widely used on the web by the blind and partially-sighted and the way that these devices read web pages means that content needs to be structured logically and clearly. This clarity requires that all images (including image links) should be fully described using their 'alt' tags and non-tabular content should not be included in tables for page structure purposes only - something that is no longer necessary with the coming of advanced CSS techniques.

Many technologies now exist to enhance the so-called 'on-line experience' of web users but, unfortunately, several of these new technologies can have a negative impact on site usability. JavaScript, for instance, is often used to create interactive effects (such as image roll-overs and pop-up windows) but many of these effects remain unseen by users with JavaScript turned off or by screen readers - something that can create major problems if JavaScript represents the only way of accessing a link or other important elements of a site's content.