A quick check on website usability of www.yamu.lk.

Website usability is a key factor, in a world many things are instant. The maximum time a person would want to waste on your website might be 10 seconds and you should be able to deliver what the audience is looking for in that short time,without making them go to another site because of your site's lack of user friendliness.

A checklist can be used to analyze this user friendliness of particular sites and the website I selected is www.yamu.lk which is a recent and attractive website, catering to a dynamic audience. I will be evaluating the website according to the following characteristics. So let's go on a small journey around this website to see how good it is. http://www.yamu.lk/

Accessibility

• Site load time is extremely quick. We just have to type yamu.lk on google and when the link  is pressed the site loads within 5 seconds, saving us any waiting time.
• Adequate text to background contrast is very much available. As you see in the above image the background is purely white and the content and the images are very contrasting, which makes them very eye catchy and noticeable.
• Font size and spacing is easy to read where the topics are highlighted in big simple font and  the small font letters can only be found in the side of the home page and they are very much readable.When we click on a link it takes us to detailed documents, where the spacing is usual and the font is readable too.
• Flash and add-ons are used sparingly as we don't see a busy website here. The top banner and the big flashy one underneath keeps on changing their content, without any disturbances to our surfing. They only add color to the site. The add-ons are very minimum as we don't see any of Classifieds, Email Forms, Tell A Friend, Live Java Chat, Password Protection, Photo Storage, Cartoons, Greeting Cards, Mailing Lists, Search Engines around the website which makes it easy for us to surf. But to ask a question through' Ahamu' tab, we need to go through facebook and do that. 
• Images have appropriate ALT tagsAs we see in this image, the ALT tags assigned for the images define what it is about and what we will find when we visit the particular link.
• Site has custom not found 404 page
  As the image shows yamu.lk has a very attractive 404 page and gives out the needed information to recover our intended destination, underneath in readable font.

Identity

• Company logo is prominently placed as the black and red divided circle is placed carefully at the top corner of the page next to the site name in an attention seeking, prominent manner.
• Tagline makes company's purpose clear. This can be seen as a little drawback as yamu doesn't have a tagline attached to it. But by looking at the tabs like bomu(bars), gamu(shops) etc... and at the first glance, it manages to give an idea that it is a one stop destination for trendy youngsters who are looking for new places constantly to eat, drink, shop and enjoy.
• Home page is digestible in 5 seconds for sure as I said before. By one look at it and with the eye catching flashy images and the tabs available on top, we can digest what the content is all about.
• Clear path to company information is not directly available. But by clicking 'More' we can find the 'About us' link which presents us with information on yamu.lk
• Clear path to contact information. The interesting factor here is that in yamu.lk company information and contacts are in the same page, which makes it somewhat easy. The reason is the starters are the entrepreneurs and they say 'think of us as your friend in the city, we are here to help' .

Navigation

• Main navigation is easily identifiable as visible in all the above images.The main tabs being kamu, bomu, gamu, karamu, balamu, ahamu and more.
• Navigation labels are clear and concise as they are all in simple block capitals and within brackets they explain in one word, what we will find inside.
• Number of buttons/links is reasonable because there is only a minimum amount off advertising done and the disturbance created is very minimum.
• Company logo is linked to the homepage as when we click on the logo it'll automatically take us to the homepage.
• Links are consistent and easy to identify as they appear in similar manner and in good font.
• Site search is easy to access as the search button is available at the top ribbon in the right corner.

Content 

• Major headings are clear and descriptive as said before the important tabs like bomu(bars), gamu(shops) state clearly what we can find in them and they are stated in big block capitals to gain the attention.
• Critical content is above the fold because the main areas are located along with the logo and the site name, then a message from an advertiser is shown and then, in a big area, constantly changing images are shown mentioning the new places in Srilanka which are good to visit, basically communicating what the audience is looking for.
• Styles and colors are consistent as the same font style is used throughout the site with changing font sizes according to the emphasis needed. The colors are consistent too with black and white used more often and a light blue is also used as a font color. Home page incorporates more eye catching colors with advertising and the basic messages.
• Emphasis(bold.. etc) is used sparingly as everything is not in bold. The important titles are in bold, but the descriptions are in normal text.
• Adds and pop-ups are unobtrusive as I mentioned above,only one advertising message could be seen for the whole site and there are absolutely no pop-ups, which gives us the message that yamu.lk takes their content very seriously.
• Main copy is concise and explanatory as at the fist glance the website communicates it's content clearly without any confusions. The images are visible fast too without taking time to appear and the main copy is all about what the audience wants to see and not about what the company is doing or anything else.
• URLs are meaningful and user friendly and describes the content as it is.
• HTML page titles are explanatory as  http://www.yamu.lk/place/restaurants.html is what is displayed when we click on the 'kamu' link.

To wrap it up, yamu.lk is a good and an entertaining site to be in and there is no such bombardment of unwanted messages thrown at you, which is the one thing I appreciate the most.