Real-World Solutions for Developing High-Quality PHP Frameworks and Applications

Chapter 14. Usability

Jens Grochtdreis

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Limitations of the browser environment

• Designing for usability

• Performance as an aspect of usability

• JavaScript considerations

• Designing effective navigation for usability

• Testing usability

More topics follow as needed. In this case study, we talk about the usability^[137] of websites. Usability as a quality characteristic of an interactive system means that users can use the website efficiently, effectively, and satisfactorily. Usability looks at humans in regard to a website. Usability should be a natural concern for every provider of a website. If that is not the case, users do not stay and do not turn into customers.

Practical experience shows that, quite often, the focus is not on the consumer.^[138] A website can be viewed as a dialogue. A form is a kind of dialogue.^[139] Cancellations in multi-page forms demonstrate that this dialogue can be disrupted. Navigation is a form of dialogue as well, because consumers are being shown their way. The goal of usability is to make this dialogue easy and usable for consumers. Only then, when forms are comprehensive and usable, can a consumer start a dialog.

With usability, the devil is in the detail. Texts with bad wording can scare away consumers and make a page unusable, because on the web, more people scan than read intensively. Usability cannot be generated with simple technical tricks or a PHP function. Usability is about planning the right approach, long before the first "click ...