The Chamber

Points to note this week include:

• Details of the first phase of the James Street improvement works which begin on Tuesday, May 29  - Loop Line should be back in operation on Tuesday
• The Lord Mayor’s Parade takes place on Saturday, June 2 and the Liverpool Dock exit of the Queensway Tunnel will be closed
• The Kingsway Tunnel from Liverpool to Wallasey will be closed on Sunday, June 3 for three hours for the 10k tunnel road run
• Stanley Street is now two-way with access for taxis and deliveries

Full details on all of the above  see: www.liverpool.gov.uk/bigdig

Additional information on www.merseytravel.gov.uk

Yes, I know it’s only Thursday, but I’m off tomorrow. Jealous? Of course you are. So - here’s our little bit of web-based goodness to ease you into the weekend.

This week, it’s the 30 Second Bunny Theatre.  A whole host of classic films re-created in under 30 seconds, and performed by bunnies.

Choose from Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws, Fight Club, Pulp Fiction and many more. And at 30 seconds each, you can’t be accused of wasting time!

A seminar orgainised by Merben is being held to help businesses involved in the manufacturing and use of electrical and electronic components prepare for the WEEE regulations which come into force from 1 July 2007.

WEEE stands for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment. The WEEE directive aims to encourage more recycling, recovery and re-use of waste electrical equipment.

The event takes place on 19 June 2007 at Aintree Racecourse, 12 noon - 2.30pm.

Download more information and booking form [PDF]

Previously on the Chamber blog, we’ve looked at the importance of accessibility for websites. Now, we can have a quick look at web usability.

What is usability? Well, as the name suggests, it’s all about making websites easy to use. If they aren’t, people will simply leave. There is always another website just a click away that’s just a little bit easier to navigate around…

There are several ways to make a website more user-friendly. If you are developing a new website, usability should be considered from the beginning, just as accessibility should be. Think about the structure of your site -

• how easy is it to get to information?
• are your links clearly named?
• are you using words and terms that only your staff would use? (All companies develop their own language - your web visitors probably won’t know this)
• has your copy been written especially for the web? (We’ll look at this in more detail in another article)
• are buttons and links obvious?
• is your site searchable? You can always manually input top results for popular search terms to make sure users get the right information.

In terms of content, think about what information people will need, then make it available and easy to find:

• Who are you?
• What do you do?
• Where are you?
• How can you be contacted?
• Who are your senior staff?
• What goods or services do you provide?
• Where can people buy your products?

What you think is important may not be the same as what your customers actually want. That’s why a key element in usability is user testing. At best, this should involve asking a range of your website users to come in and try and complete a number of tasks (finding specific information, making a purchase, contacting your staff etc). From their experiences you can see where your site can be improved. At the least, you should canvas your customers to see what they would like from your site, then do your best to meet these needs.

Obviously, this is only the briefest of introductions to usability. A lot of it is simply common sense, yet many sites still fail to follow the simple rules. Follow the links below to learn more about how you can make your site more user-friendly.

The fundamentals of usability from Jakob Nielsen 

Usability basics from Webcredible

Usability.gov - a US site all about website usability.