Any professional will tell you. The aesthetic work done on a site is not enough. Web ergonomics are essential to obtain a good website. You should also hire a web design company for the development and maintenance of your website.

Any professional worth their salt will tell you. The aesthetic work carried out during the creation of a site is not enough even if its place is enormous. Your site must adapt to your users so that they can use it easily and want to come back to it.

However, satisfying its users is a difficult gamble.

How then can I make Internet users find my site practical and readable? By respecting the main rules of web ergonomics .

What is the ergonomics of a website?

Every day, you use everyday objects that have been designed “normally” to make your life easier (except the medication instructions… and I can clearly see the smiles emerging there). The mission of ergonomics is to adapt these objects to humans to make your life easier.

With the development of new technologies, this discipline has had to adapt to the web. Thus, when designing a site, it is essential to facilitate the interaction between man and the interface as much for the owner of the site who will administer it as for the users (Internet users) who will consult it. .

The success of a website is therefore similar to the following three main elements of web ergonomics:

The usefulness of a site: knowing how to make the contents of a site interesting

The first axis making it possible to say that  a website  optimizes the user experience is its  usefulness , that is to say its ability to help carry out the human activity for which it was designed.

To be able to meet this first condition, it is necessarily necessary to determine the expectations and needs of future visitors in their entirety but also in terms of micro-functionalities. Indeed, it is these that will trigger decision-making.

A  useful site therefore makes it possible to meet a need. However, utility is not enough on its own to say that a site is ergonomically optimized. Once your user has entered your site, it is necessary that it stays there and benefits: usability.

Site usability: knowing how to make a site simple to access and above all easy to use

The ISO 9241 standard defines usability in this way:  A product is said to be usable when it can be used effectively, efficiently and with satisfaction.

1. The website must be efficient

The user must succeed in carrying out the action for which he entered the website in a simple way.

2. The website must be efficient

The Internet user must be able to perform his actions quickly and intuitively with the fewest possible errors (or great ease in correcting them).

3. The website must provide satisfaction

A website must be at the service of its users and not respond to a personal ego. Internet users must therefore be satisfied with this once their action is completed and successfully carried out.

The web usability should not be overlooked in the realization of a web project. Indeed, by placing the experience of your Internet users at the heart of everything, you increase your chances that they will appreciate it, come back to it more often and talk about it around them.

Taking into account the previous points, investing in such a website will therefore be more profitable because it will make it easier to achieve your objectives (increase in sales, registrations, visits, etc.)

Graphic design

As we say “if we can combine the useful with the pleasant”. A beautiful site will remain all the more easily anchored in the memory, if you quickly find what you are looking for… it will only be happiness.

Do you want to know more about the success of your web project? We invite you to consult our article which explains how to prepare the creation of your website.

What must the ergonomics of a site respect?

The top advice we can give you is definitely to put yourself in your visitors’ shoes when designing your site. It will be easier for you to apply the following rules and deliver a site that reassures your visitors and inspires confidence.  

1 / A clear, simple and precise home page:

This is the page that will often have the highest traffic. It is therefore essential that visitors immediately want to know more.

Contrary to what you might think, it’s not the beauty of your design, which is all in all very subjective, that will push your visitors to action. No, they won’t marvel at him. They are looking to accomplish an action or find information, that’s all.

Your first goal will be to make their life easier: keep it simple. Of course, all of your pages will also have to respect this rule because your visitors can access your site from any page.

2 / Readable texts:

Reading a text on a computer quickly tires the eyes so it is advisable to avoid too wide or too thin columns of text, illegible or too exotic fonts, texts on a gray background …

Instead, prefer:

  • Black text on white background
  • A standard font size (no microscopic or macroscopic font).
  • A classic font
  • The underlining of links exclusively
  • Page plans cut into paragraphs with titles, sub-titles

3 / No gadget:

Avoid as much as possible animations and other unnecessary gadgets on the site. Apart from the fact that they slow down the loading time of the site, they tire the eyes a lot and above all, exasperate visitors who spend their time having to close them or juggle them to read the rest of the page.   

4 / A quick display:

Internet users are usually people in a hurry (and I know what I’m talking about). If you don’t want your visitor to come out as quickly as they entered, reduce the weight of your pages.

5 / A readable page plan:

Each page should have a title and be airy with a pleasing layout. Use captions, short and concise paragraphs. Allow your internet users to find their way around easily.

8 / Access in 3 clicks:

Even if this rule can be qualified (the important thing being above all the speed of access to the information sought and the fluidity with which it is accessed), keeping this rule in mind greatly improves navigation. Beyond that, people may think of your site as confusing and impractical.

9 / Optimized access on the various media:

At one time when more than half of navigation is carried out on a mobile device, your site must offer an optimal experience on each of these media. To do this, the responsive design will automatically vary the display mode of the pages according to the size of the screen.

As you can see, a good site cannot be reduced to a simple visual.

It requires an upstream study of its ergonomics that will allow your visitors to want to enter it, move easily and quickly find the information sought. That’s what you want, right?

Want to know more? Find our article on the 10 most popular beliefs about user experience.

Why is web ergonomics an essential criterion for good natural referencing?

As you have understood, ergonomics affect the quality and comfort of use of web browsing. It is the ability of a website to meet the expectations of an Internet user. If previously natural visibility and ergonomics were considered as two very distinct disciplines, it is now accepted that an ergonomic site benefits from better referencing.

Search engines like organized sites

As you will have read above, ergonomics attaches immense importance to the architecture of the website. For those who know a little about natural referencing, this is also its goal. Making it clear to the engines which are the main pages and the secondary pages lets them understand that your site is built the same way.

In summary, what’s good for your visitor is good for your SEO. However, what an Internet user expects on a site is above all to find relevant, high-quality, readable and easy-to-use information. This is how ergonomics can also be summed up.