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Usability
Usability is about making your website easy for users to use. For a marketer this means making it easy for them to do what you want them to. For a publisher it means making it easy for the user to find what they want (which might be what you want too!). For a user it means making the site easy for you to do what you want. Either way, it is about analysing how users use your site to ensure that it performs its function as well as possible, whatever that function is.
The basics - good design
The basics of usability are ingrained in the mind of any good web designed. Clear design, effective layout putting things where people expect to find them, good use of colour. Many aspects of a usable site are apparent as soon as you look at a site.
A good web designer will be able to produce a site that is broadly usable, but you won't know how usable it actually is until you find out how people use it in practice.
Quantitative review - tracking and analysis
One way to review usability is to monitor activity. Studying user patterns, particularly by focusing on key areas can give you a good indication of where problems lie. This requires you to have good tracking in place and to be able to analyse the tracking data effectively. (See Tracking and reporting for more.)
Qualitative review - usability studies
There is nothing like actually watching people use your site to understand the real issues. Quantitative tracking might point you to the right area (for example, you might find that people are falling out of your shopping process at a particular point), but watching and talking to users will pin-point why.
It is hard to sell in the idea of a usability test, not least because in order to highlight the benefits, you have to highlight your own fallibility as a web designer. The cost of a full usability process can also be high (it is said that a proper usability programme should cost as much as 30% of the entire budget), as each key stage of the design / development should be tested and reviewed. I guess a good way to think about it would be to ask whether you would launch a TV advertising campaign without running them past consumer panels?
A balanced approach
The reality is that you need to take a balanced approach to usability. A small brochureware site is unlikely to have significant usability issues if you use a good designer. But a critical area, such as the shopping basket and checkout on an eCommerce site, merits the attention. Losing buyers who are in the process of purchasing because of poor usability is an expensive mistake.
You need to assess the costs and benefits and come up with a usability programme that is right for you.
