Website Design – Usability/Accessibility

By Brian on June 30th, 2010

What does usability mean in the context of website design?

Usability is vital, it is one of the key items that makes a website work for your readers. If it is done properly then there is a greater chance that the user will return to your site.

What does accessibility mean in the context of website design?

Accessibility in the context of a Web site is the degree in which a Web site is usable by people with disabilities. This is again vital to the success of your website. Think, there are millions of people with a massive range of different disabilities. These are a few disabilities that often create access issues for the following groups of people:

Visually impaired people using screen readers
Hearing impaired people using browsers with no sound
Physically impaired people
Color blind people

Some people think that to overcome the problems that are created if the user were to be disabled can create “ugly” looking websites, yet this isn’t the case. Thinking about colour schemes, typography, simple navigation, reasonable amounts of content and larger sized images can all contribute to a disabled persons better experience when using the net.

Of course there are many more aspects that need to be thought about, but its the simple things that really make a difference. Below are some statistics regarding visually impaired/blind people:

Worldwide

314 million people are visually impaired
45 million people are blind
124 million have low vision
145 million have uncorrected refractive errors

United Kingdom

2 million people are visually impaired
Over 360,000 people are registered blind or visually impaired
25,000 children under the age of 16 are visually impaired

Every day around 100 people in the UK start to lose their sight.
Here is a chart showing the amount of people who have access to the internet in their relative continents:

From the statistics for people with visual difficulties I have calculated a total of 628million people affected, this is a huge proportion in relation to users on the net.

In business terms the success of your website will decrease dramatically if you don’t take into account the usability and accessibility, consequently resulting in less people visiting your site, and less people purchasing from your site.

Overall, it is important that you satisfy every (or as many as possible) user’s out their in order for your website to become a success.

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