Summary
Certainly as an entrepreneur, manager, director, owner of a company or head of a department, when paying for the creation of a website, the least thing we think to do is give technical instructions to the experts in web development. However, without incurring in programming code technicalities, we must be aware of regulatory aspects that will guarantee that the work delivered to us is of the best quality and complies with our implementation strategy for this website.
Methodology
A study of some expert recommendations on the use of the ISO 9241 standards related to the usability of the systems was carried out, and recommendations from the W3C, which is an international body for the standardization of web development, are cited.
Only the most relevant aspects with which a company or organization website must comply were taken into account, in such a way as to reach the user and provide the expected comfort in navigating the site.
We will divide the topic according to the sections that a business site basically has:
Text complete
Home page
It is the home page of the website, the first page that is displayed when entering a web address.
This page must meet the following minimum requirements:
1. The elements of the home page must be focused on the main tasks of the user (there must be a clearly identified main menu).
A bad practice would be to have the menu sparse with buttons that don't visually stand out:
2. The Home page must have a text field for internal searches within the site.
3. The categories of products or services must be clearly presented.
4. There must be useful content on the Home page, and it does not appear that the space was filled with text just because there was plenty of space.
5. The home page should offer examples of what will be found on the rest of the website.
6. The links on the home page contain the most important keywords.
Instead of unnecessary long sentences:
7. Make sure that the navigation areas on the home page do not suffer from formatting / layout abuse and cannot be mistaken for advertising by users. In other words, you have to avoid sudden changes in colors and fonts, it is always good to keep the same style throughout the website.
8. It is recommended that the home page highlights the motto of the company or a slogan.
9. The home page must contain valuable graphic information, avoiding images or animations that are not related to the company or organization.
10. The home page must handle a correct order in the menu it displays, where the last menu item is the least important at the corporate level.
11. The company name and website must appear in search engine searches. The developer can make the result display according to the options on the home page, example:
12. With a single glance at the home page, the user will know where to start. This means that the design clearly shows the optimal navigation flow.
13. The home page shows all the important options of the site, and it is not necessary to go to another page to reach the link of the services and products.
14. The home page has an easy to remember URL, for example www.empresaCaribena.com, instead of www.empresa45Caribena3256.com
15. The home page shows professionalism and makes a good first impression on the visitor.
16. The home page design motivates users to keep exploring the site.
17. The home page is unique, meaning that users cannot mistake it for another page on the same site.
18. When entering the website, the home page should not have pop-up windows, much less if they are advertising, for this be sure to pay for a hosting service, and not use a free hosting that after one month you will send advertising to your website visitors.
19. It is advisable to clarify the browsers for which your website is compatible, like this:
Browsers supported by the website
General characteristics of the site
In the previous section we evaluated the home page, which is the most important at the presentation level, however the greatest functionality of a website is almost always found in the other links on the site, but which at the same time are part of the same portal.
The following general recommendations apply to the entire website:
- The website must contain only relevant and important information for the purposes of the company or organization. Avoiding distracting ads The site should avoid the use of web applications in excess such as too many videos that take time to load, java applets that take time to run (and sometimes do not open when the user does not have java installed), graphics, etc., the user should not be forced to register and log in to navigate the site. The Login must be only to carry out transactions. The presentation of the information must be in logical order and must be displayed clearly. The site must allow access to view the privacy and security policies,In general, at the bottom of all the pages of the website, the link "Privacy Policies" is placed. The site must allow a user who enters for the first time to understand how it works. In case of being a site that performs online sales, the "Add to cart" button is clearly visible to the user as well as the "Check out" button. The site action buttons ("Send", "Add", "Pay", etc.) must be show as buttons and not as links. The images of the icons or buttons must be related to the function they perform. The site must be free of programming errors, such as javascript errors, broken links or "Unexpected error" errors or "website not found."The "Add to Cart" button is clearly visible to the user as well as the "Check out" button. The site's action buttons ("Send", "Add", "Pay", etc.) must be displayed as buttons and not as links. The images of the icons or buttons must be related to the function that they perform. The site must be free of programming errors, such as javascript errors, broken links or "unexpected error" or "site web not found ”.The "Add to Cart" button is clearly visible to the user as well as the "Check out" button. The site's action buttons ("Send", "Add", "Pay", etc.) must be displayed as buttons and not as links. The images of the icons or buttons must be related to the function that they perform. The site must be free of programming errors, such as javascript errors, broken links or "unexpected error" or "site web not found ”.such as javascript errors, broken links or "unexpected error" or "website not found" errors.such as javascript errors, broken links or "unexpected error" or "website not found" errors.
Site credibility
On the internet there are millions of web pages of companies globally, but behind each site there must be a real company which it represents. To create that trust in visitors, it is necessary to take into account the following recommendations:
- The website must not contain false or unauthorized information, much less taken from other sources without due legal permission. The site must specify the physical address of the company and its telephone numbers. If possible also photos of the managers. The prices that appear are the real ones. Each page of the site must show the logo so that the user knows that it is maintained on the same site. The site offers quick technical assistance, either for a form or a phone number or an email address The spelling of the site must be impeccable.
Responsive web design
Due to the many devices that exist today, and the variety of browsers and screen sizes, it has been necessary to create new technologies that allow a website to be displayed in the same way on different devices.
This technology is known as RWD (Responsive Web Design (* 1)) or Adaptive Web Design. And it is an additional feature that we recommend that your website apply so that users can navigate your website from an Android cell phone, iPhone, iPad, tablet, desktop or any electronic device.
Conclusions
Every website has a purpose, and to achieve the purpose it is necessary that we know how to verify the work that the web developer has done. While it is true that not all of us will be able to understand the programming behind a web page, at least we can verify the quality of the content it displays.
Recommendation
It is advisable to study a bit the standards such as ISO 9241 and the recommendations of the W3C) to have some ideas about the minimum characteristics with which a good website must comply. At the moment this article has cited some of these recommendations, placing them in a simple way, however if you want to have a site with high competitive standards there are many elements to evaluate, especially regarding Content Quality, Web Forms, among others, which were not deepened in this article.
