7 Signs You Need a Website Usability Test
A website can look modern, load quickly, and even attract plenty of traffic, yet still fail where it matters most: delivering a smooth user experience. Visitors might get lost, abandon their carts, or leave before finding the information they need. When this happens, the issue often isn’t design or traffic, it’s usability.
Usability testing is the process of observing real users interact with your website to see where they struggle and what works well. It goes beyond opinions and gives you hard evidence of how people actually use your site.
But how do you know if your website really needs a usability test? Let’s look at seven clear signs that it’s time to put your site in front of users.
1. High Traffic, Low Conversions
If your website is bringing in visitors but they aren’t converting, usability issues may be standing in their way.
Imagine running ads that drive thousands of people to your site every month, yet sales remain flat. The marketing works, but the user journey doesn’t. People might be confused by your navigation, frustrated with your checkout process, or unsure how to complete a form.
A usability test can reveal exactly where users drop off. Maybe your product descriptions are buried, your call-to-action is unclear, or your payment form feels untrustworthy. By uncovering these roadblocks, you can fix them and turn more visitors into paying customers.
2. Visitors Struggle to Find Key Information
Your website exists to answer user questions and guide them toward their goals. If people can’t find what they’re looking for quickly, they won’t stick around.
Do you get frequent support emails asking about pricing, delivery times, or contact details that should be obvious? That’s a red flag.
A usability test can show how long it takes users to locate critical information. If they’re clicking through multiple pages or scanning without success, your information architecture needs work. Often the fix is as simple as reorganizing menus, renaming categories, or surfacing popular content more clearly.
3. High Bounce Rates on Key Pages
A bounce rate measures how many users leave your site after viewing just one page. While not always negative (a user might read a blog post and leave satisfied), a high bounce rate on important pages like product pages or landing pages suggests a usability issue.
Users might land on your page and immediately feel overwhelmed, confused, or unconvinced to take the next step. Perhaps the layout is cluttered, the value proposition unclear, or the mobile experience poor.
Through usability testing, you can watch real users react to these pages in real time. Seeing them hesitate, scroll aimlessly, or exit instantly gives you insights into what needs to change.
4. Frequent Cart Abandonment
E-commerce websites often face the dreaded problem of cart abandonment. Users add products to their carts but leave before completing the purchase.
While some abandonment is normal (comparison shopping, waiting for payday), consistent patterns point to usability problems. Maybe your checkout requires too many steps, asks for unnecessary information, or hides costs until the last moment.
Usability testing shows exactly where people give up. Watching users attempt to check out can reveal whether the problem is form complexity, unclear shipping options, or a lack of trust signals like secure payment icons. Fixing these issues can lead to immediate revenue gains.
5. Confusing Navigation or Site Structure
Navigation is the backbone of usability. If users can’t move through your site intuitively, they’ll leave frustrated.
Signs of poor navigation include:
- Users clicking the wrong menu item repeatedly.
- Visitors returning to the homepage to “start over.”
- Confusion between categories that sound similar.
A website usability test highlights these struggles. Users will show you which labels are misleading, which sections are hidden, and how your structure aligns—or fails to align—with their expectations. Adjusting navigation after testing often leads to significant improvements in engagement and satisfaction.
6. Negative User Feedback
Sometimes the signs come directly from your audience. If customers complain about your website being “hard to use,” “confusing,” or “slow,” it’s time to investigate.
Feedback can come through customer support tickets, reviews, or even social media comments. While not all criticism is usability-related, repeated patterns should be taken seriously.
Usability testing allows you to validate this feedback. Instead of guessing whether complaints are isolated incidents, you can watch multiple users encounter the same frustrations. This turns anecdotal comments into actionable insights backed by evidence.
7. Preparing for a Redesign or Major Update
The best time to run usability tests isn’t after a redesign—it’s before.
Many businesses redesign based on aesthetics or competitor trends, only to launch a “prettier” site that performs worse. Without usability testing, you risk repeating old mistakes or introducing new ones.
By testing your current website, you identify what works and what doesn’t. That way, you can preserve strong elements while fixing weak ones. After launch, running another round of usability tests validates whether your changes improved the experience.
Skipping this step is like renovating a house without checking the foundation first.
How to Take Action
If any of these seven signs sound familiar, it’s time to schedule a usability test. The process doesn’t have to be complicated:
- Define the goals of your test.
- Recruit participants who match your target audience.
- Ask them to perform common tasks, like finding a product, requesting a quote, or completing a purchase.
- Observe where they succeed and where they struggle.
- Prioritize fixes based on the most critical barriers.
Even a handful of participants can uncover 80% of usability issues. And every insight you gain translates directly into a better user experience and stronger business outcomes.