2.1 Usability: what we found

Website usability is ‘... an essential indicator of user-friendliness of a website which can be evaluated by observing users when using the website’s features and user interfaces. Good usability design focuses on user-centric design, which focuses primarily on users’ experience rather than the actual procedure’ (Ramotion, 2024).

Website usability involves the design of websites so that they are simple enough for people to achieve their tasks quickly and easily (Singhuja and Surajith, 2009). It includes being able to find your way around a website to locate the information you need and know what to do next with minimal effort (Nah and Davis, 2002). As users of websites tend to have a specific goal or aim in mind, the usability of websites is important. People may leave a website if they struggle to obtain the information required even if the website contains the information needed (McKinney et al., 2002).  

Eleven academics and members of the research team (including a member of the public with lived experience of raising a concern) evaluated the usability of the websites. They approached regulator websites as a member of the public who wanted to raise a concern to the point of submitting a concern (but not submitting it). We asked our usability testers to explain their experiences with this process.

Activity: the usability of websites when raising a concern

Allow 15 minutes

Watch the following animation about how usable the regulator websites were based on our participants’ experiences. Make some notes in the text box below about what you might like if you were trying to raise a concern. Your notes will only be visible to you.

Transcript

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Discussion

You will have seen from the animation that although there was some agreement between participants, there were some differences in opinion and only two websites scored highly enough to be ‘usable’. Some people liked screening questions to help direct them to the right place to raise a concern whereas others did not. This suggests that individual needs and preferences vary and even people who are confident with complex information found some of the websites and forms difficult to work with.