Usability Components: Memorability and Satisfaction

published by Dan in Usability | Website Design with No Comments

Last post I discussed the importance of learnability and efficiency of use in web design. Today the component of usability that will be discussed is memorability and satisfaction.

Memorability - If learnability is how easy it is for first time users to understand how to navigate through the website and accomplish their task, memorability refers to how easy it is for returning users to remember how to navigate through the site and accomplish their task. Obviously, a website design that is complicated will make it harder for users to remember the exact steps to accomplish what they set out to do in the site. This is why efficiency and memorability also goes hand-in-hand. If the website design is more efficient there will be less steps for the users to go through to accomplish tasks and thus less things to remember, making it easier for them to reestablish proficiency even after a long period of not having visited the website.

Satisfaction - Customer satisfaction is of utmost importance if you want them to keep on coming back to the website. This is the most subjective part of usability. This means that while the graphics design of your website might please most users it will still turn off some. There is no pleasing everybody. However, your aim is not to please everyone but to please as many users as possible. What this means is investing in a good graphics design. Furthermore, the pleasant design should be coupled with the other components of usability to ensure that they will have a pleasant experience each time they visit the site.

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