Website usability & accessibility consulting

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Ensuring your website is usable and accessible - to everyone

These buzzwords are often quoted together, as they are ultimately entwined, however they cover two important aspects of website design:

Usability

Usability concerns itself with all customers visiting your website with differing aptitudes, on different devices such as mobile phones, Apple Mac's or handheld computers, as well as varying software including, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari (called cross-browser support). Usability tries to ensure everybody can see, use and benefit from your website, no matter how they get to it. It also concerns itself with how intuitive your website is to use and how easy it is to navigate.

Avoiding un-necessary use of Flash or graphic text, using familiar navigation techniques, and using good contrasting colour schemes are three examples of how usability can improve a customers experience of your website. A good customer experience is more likely to encourage the customer to trust you and recommend you to others. A bad experience may mean a customer leaves your website before the first page has finished loading, and you are unlikely to get a recommendation from them.

Accessibility

Accessibility is specifically orientated around the needs of customers with disabilities or minor ailments, such as blindness, learning disabilities, motor control disabilities, social deprivations and other mental and physical disabilities. The recent changes to the law [see DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) ] mean that all companies are now obliged to provide reasonable access to all their services, including their website, to people with disabilities.