For a website to work as a marketing tool, it needs a clear, straightforward message which is conveyed both by the copy and the visual elements. Just as important is good functional design—the framework that allows the visual and verbal aspects of the site to succeed.
Here's what a website user might have to say about designing and developing a website for usability.
Don't Make Me Dig
It may be a compliment to say that a person is deep, but it's not a good thing to say about a website. I want to find things easily, not go hunting through level after level. "Deep" sites get me frustrated, and I'll leave without absorbing your message.
Clicking is a Drag
Keep that website "shallow!" It's best if everything on the site is accessible within two clicks of the home page. The home page menu counts as the first click. If you're a really big company, you may have too much content for this to work—but you can afford to develop multiple websites for different product lines, and make sure each of them follows the two-click rule.
Pull-downs are a Pain
Even when I really want to find something, I'll give up if I have to deal with pull-down menus that disappear before I can read through them. On the other hand, pull-downs that work let me see everything that's available on the site right from the home page, without clutter. So use them, but use them right.
Keep pull-down lists short. If the pull-downs appear to the side of the original menu, make sure the developer "freezes" the menu so it stays visible when I have to mouse first sideways and then down.
How Do I Get Home?
Ever been on a web page and found you couldn't get back to the main menu or the home page except by clicking "Back"? I don't stick around long when that happens to me.
Make sure the main menu is visible on every page—even when I'm down several levels in the site. Keep pages short to keep menus in sight. If I've got to scroll, give me a quick-link from the bottom to the top of the page, or repeat the main menu at the bottom of the copy.
If I click on a link to another site and your site disappears, chances are I'll take a detour and never go back. If you don't want me to get lost in a trail of attachments and links to other sites, open another window for attachments and external links, so your website remains visible at all times.