Web sites with high usability get more repeat visitors, more word of mouth publicity, and more sales. This is because – as survey after survey has shown – users are goal-oriented. They come to a site to accomplish something, whether getting information or buying a product. Imagine your emotions if you went to your local supermarket to buy some bread and milk, and the manager insisted on giving you a "tour of the supermarket." You would be annoyed at the very least. Internet users are no different. Usability is the science of giving them what they want, fast.

All interfaces and web sites need improvements in usability – including this one. There are many reasons. The main one is that the creator of an interface is usually too close to the client – the company executives, marketing, and technical people. The result is company-centeric rather than user-centric interfaces. This is why great writers appreciate great editors, and why top-notch designers like usability reviews – a fresh eye always catches mistakes you can't find on your own. (In fact we substantially redesigned the navigation on this site in August 2001 – and there is still room for improvement.)

For this reason alone, we always find at least 200 ways to improve an interface or web site. (500+ improvements is the average.)

And then, we've been doing this for awhile. One of our employees started dealing with usability in the days of "cold type," when typesetting was actually done by hand, with letter by letter placed into a type tray, and then locked into the printing press. To us, there is a huge difference between a 2-pixel dividing line, and an 8-pixel dividing line. The first tells the user, "closely related information," the second says "completely unrelated information."

That one mistake in usability can be minor. It might only take the user another three seconds to figure it out. Inconvenience the user another 99 times, though – 297 seconds worth – and that annoyed user has long since clicked the dreaded "Back" button.

If you want your visitors clicking on "Purchase" or "Send me more info", drop us an email.