How to Make a Business Website Easier for Everyone to Use

Make a website easier to use by observing a real customer task, fixing the specific obstacle and repeating the task to check the result. This guide is a practical repair exercise. For the underlying principles, read what makes a website easy to use.

You can start with one service and one enquiry route. A small, clear test often provides a better brief than a long list of personal design preferences.

Choose a task with a meaningful end

Write a neutral task such as: “You need garden maintenance at this address. Find out whether the business serves the area and what you would need to do to request a quotation.”

Do not tell the participant which menu item to select. The route they choose is part of the evidence. Avoid using real customer information or submitting an unexpected live enquiry; agree a safe test route with the team first.

The usability testing guide explains how to observe without leading the participant.

Record what happens

Use one row per obstacle. Capture the page and device, what the participant tried, what happened and the effect on completing the task.

Observation	Possible cause to investigate	Smallest useful change	Retest
Visitor cannot tell whether the postcode is served	Coverage appears only on a distant page	Add accurate coverage near the service’s enquiry route	Can a new reader confirm suitability?
Form error clears the message	Validation does not preserve values	Retain entered text and explain the correction	Can the person recover without starting again?
Keyboard focus is hard to locate	Focus styling is missing or obscured	Provide a visible focus indicator	Can the route be completed without a mouse?

These examples are hypothetical. Confirm the actual cause before implementing a change; a visitor’s difficulty does not always come from the first explanation the team suggests.

Rank the obstacles by customer impact

Fix a blocked task before a cosmetic preference. A useful order is: cannot complete, can complete only with substantial difficulty, and can complete but encounters avoidable hesitation.

Include reach and confidence. An issue seen on an important mobile enquiry path deserves attention, but one observation does not prove how often all visitors experience it. Keep the evidence and the estimate separate.

For content problems, compare the wording with the information customers need from a website.

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Make one coherent change

Write a short hypothesis: “People cannot distinguish the two services, so we will name them by customer need and explain the difference before the links.” Keep unrelated changes out of that test where practical.

Use descriptive navigation labels, visible form labels and instructions beside the control they explain. Preserve entered information after errors. Check that a button’s wording matches the destination and what happens next.

For form-specific problems, use why visitors abandon contact forms. For broader menu decisions, read the website navigation guide.

Retest the whole route

Repeat the task with someone who has not been taught the solution. Check the changed page and the next step; moving a problem to the contact page is not a successful repair.

Try a narrow screen, keyboard navigation and zoom. Confirm that instructions and essential information remain available. These checks are a starting point and do not constitute a complete accessibility assessment. The website accessibility guide explains the broader requirements and testing approach.

Check loading and layout stability too. A clear control is still difficult to use if it moves as someone tries to select it. See the mobile website guide.

Keep a short decision record

Record the observation, chosen change, owner, date, test and remaining uncertainty. Keep screenshots or notes that explain the decision. This prevents a later redesign from accidentally restoring the same obstacle.

Once a change is live, review relevant outcomes over a suitable period. Compare completed and qualified enquiries rather than treating every click as success. The website measurement guide helps connect usability work with business outcomes.

Repeat with the next important task

Choose the next task from evidence: repeated customer questions, an unreliable integration or a service whose suitability is hard to understand. Use the 90-day improvement plan to keep the backlog manageable.

Use observed problems and repeatable tests to guide usability changes. Shorter pages and icons will help only if they address the difficulty you found.

• website usability
• website accessibility
• business websites
• inclusive design
• customer experience