Internet users find news/media websites best for usability

Based on a poll of over 1,000 Internet users during the last four months of 2009, Webcredible discovered that some industry sectors need to pull their socks up when it comes to website usability.

According to the poll, the top three performing industry sectors were news and media websites with just 7% finding them difficult to use, followed by travel (9%) and utility (12%) websites.

"Some sectors are clearly performing better than others when it comes to website usability, but as competition and demand for online functionality increases, it's crucial that websites in all sectors invest in providing their users with the best user experience possible," said Trenton Moss, Director at Webcredible.

While retail/ecommerce (13%) and financial services (16%) websites didn't fare too badly, local authority/government sector websites failed to impress over a third (34%) of those polled.

A word of warning from Moss. "Website user experience has become a big deal in most sectors and users are increasingly frustrated if they find a website difficult to use and will tend to drop off commercial sites for this reason."

Companies are beginning to take note. Last October, Webcredible's "Ecommerce Usability for High Street Retailers" rankings showed a marked improvement across many of the stores in terms of usability criteria such as navigation, login/registration and the checkout process.

Tags: e-commerce, financial services, government sector, travel, website usability