Designing such a navigation system requires good customer definition. Research suggests that traditionally collected information about gender, age, income, and education is less useful than user profiles based on experience levels with computers in general, the Internet, the specific web site, and the subject matter of the site. Users vary tremendously when profiled against those categories, but it is possible to identify patterns of behavior common to large groups of users. Optavia's usability research has identified four common strategies, or personas, which suggest defined navigation behaviors. Incorporating navigation elements that accommodate the tendencies and behaviors of all four personas should significantly increase the usability of a site for a large portion of its users.
Usability therefore increases productivity, sales, and profits.
For customer oriented sites, a usable web site means customers can find what they want to purchase and make that purchase. Since usability provides a market advantage, many companies want to employ usability evaluation techniques to measure and improve customer acceptance of their web presence. To ensure a customer-centered focus, companies sometimes borrow techniques from marketing, quality assurance, and software development, as well as from the field of usability. Because of the many techniques available, it is important to select appropriate methods based on the desired results. Descriptions, comparisons, and recommendations of the various available techniques are provided.