Designing Easy-to-use Websites provides practical guidelines on how to design usable e-business websites; websites that not only contain up-to-date, effective information that is easy to find, but sites that actually make it easy for users to do all the tasks that they have come to the site to achieve. The emphasis now for e-business websites is to improve customer satisfaction and to make the user experience of the site simple, intuitive and efficient. Companies who invest in designing solutions that make life easy for their users are far more likely to achieve customer retention – the key to the success or failure of any business on the web.

This book analyses the reasons why many e-business websites fail and then goes on to provide a structured approach and methodology that can help improve the chances of success. It provides a toolkit of techniques that can be adopted and tailored to design easy-to-use websites, and details the processes that can be introduced within an organization to ensure that once a site is up and running, there are controls in place to make sure that site quality is maintained.

One of the key issues in the development of web solutions for existing businesses is how to utilize the their existing knowledge of their business and bring this experience effectively to their website. This book looks at the exciting possibilities of adaptive interfaces, and how businesses can effectively target information to different users and build in content relationships into the interface using collaborative filtering techniques.

In this book practical design methodologies underpinned by common information models can be adapted by web design and development teams to create practical robust content templates, and develop task and work flows. This ensures that not only is the website an easy and enjoyable experience for users, but the publishing and transaction environments that sit behind the site are sympathetic to the needs of the business management processes as well as the needs of those who must support and maintain the site.

This book will ensure that your website:

• Is easy to use
• Is enjoyable to use
• Delivers high-quality up-to-date information
• Successfully meets business targets and models
• Keeps customers coming back for more!

Vanessa Donnelly is a software designer and Ease of Use Consultant within IBM specializing in Website Design and Content Management.