Can your audience easily find the content they want? Is your content relevant and easy to understand? Web usability deals with these fundamental elements to improve people’s interaction with your website.

The way websites are set up is contingent upon the target audience’s savviness in navigating the web. While helping Austin Foodshed Investors revamp their website, we identified three universal principles that can enhance web usability.

We conducted the Peek and A/B testing to gather a set of findings that we are applicable to nearly all websites.

1. Use Your Navigation Menu Effectively

The navigation menu is a critical part of your website. You should use your navigation menu (the main menu of your website) to help visitors find the most important information.

For Austin Foodshed Investors, we tested two versions of the navigation:

We found that people were attracted to the first link in the navigation:

In Version 1, 56-percent of testers said they would click “About” first, compared to a whopping 86-percent in Version 2. Interestingly, when “Invest” was the first link (Version 1), 28-percent of testers would click “Invest”. But when we moved “Invest” to the second link (Version 2), nearly no one (4%) said they would click it.

So what’s the takeaway? Put your most important and desired information first so people can find it easily.

2. Use Easy-to-Understand Language

In today’s digital world, people’s attention span has shortened to 8-seconds. So you have little time to capture their attention. People must be able to quickly understand your content so they stay engaged on your site.

With Austin Foodshed Investors, our testers told us that words like “Raise” in the navigation were unclear: 20-percent of the testers had no clue what it meant. Other testers made an incorrect guess.

So what’s the takeaway? Use language that is clear and easy to understand. Especially in your navigation.

3. Make Your Site Easy to Read

Your site needs to be quick and easy to read. If people get overloaded with text, they may leave your site.

Just as we expected, our Peek testers did just that with Austin Foodshed Investors. Whenever they encountered a page with an overwhelming amount of text, they decided not to read it at all!

So what’s the takeaway? Keep your web pages simple. Don’t overwhelm people with text.

Try using captivating visuals to amplify your message.

How well does your website apply these tips? If you’re not sure, give Peek tests and A/B tests a try. And if you want help, we’re just a click away.