Practical Guide to Website Usability

This article is designed to display human limitations that web designers should consider to make websites more usable. This article is intended to be an introduction to the topic of human limitations and web design. More detailed material can be found on the resources page.

Web usability is an approach to designing effective websites that take into account human limitations. It is all about effectiveness of presenting information using internet technologies. “Web Designers should take into account the basic abilities of all potential users.” (Bailey, 1996, p. 69). The information contained in this article will help designers make pages accessible for all persons regardless of their human limitations. “…making [web]sites accessible helps make them more usable for everyone.” (Grossman, 2004). This project was designed to determine the features of a website that will make it accessible to users, regardless of their limitations.

This article is a resource that permits users to learn about how to make websites accessible while displaying may accessibility principles on its pages. 

User Limitations

There are three types of user limitations: cognitive processing, sensory, and physical abilities. 

Cognitive Processing

Memory
Designers should strive to create sites that do not overload the users' memory. Sites with low memory loads will permit the user to navigate and learn the site more efficiently. 

There are three categories of memory: Sensory, Short Term and Long Term.