January is the time of New Year’s Resolutions and let’s face it, you either love ‘em or hate ‘em. If you’re still with me – great! Here’s some ideas you can use to improve your website, app, intranet, [insert new 2012 digital thing here]…

Trim the fat

Did your website over-eat last year? Well now’s the time to put it on a ‘word’ diet! People are browsing on the go, becoming more demanding and less patient to wait. You’ve just got to have a lean, stable site! Here’s how you can shape up right now…

The tech

How long does your website take to load? 3 seconds? 5 seconds? Find out right now, by using YSlow and see how your pages are performing.  And don’t forget to check on mobile too. I’m sure you’ll find things you can do to minimise the load time and get optimised. Do the tests and challenge yourself to fix up as much as you can. Remember to keep the site optimised – that means all year round folks! You can’t just visit the gym once; every new piece of content should follow the regime.

The content

How much content do you have on an average page? Is it busting at the seams with text competing for attention? Open up a popular page on your site now and have a look. Go on… cut and paste your content into a text editor and do a word count. Now half that number. That’s your target! Rinse and repeat for the worst offending pages on your site.

The design

Has your navigation grown out of control? Can visitors find their way around your site with ease? Go grab yourself someone off the street (or down the corridor) and find out. Sit them down and ask them to do a common task, sit back, watch and learn. How’d it go, not so good? Could be time for some Information Architecture loving and a few rules for content authors to keep the site organised. Start by finding out how bad the problem is, does the site need a new structure or just a clean up? Some usability testing can help find this out.

I want more resolutions!

If you are keen as mustard for more things to do this year, consider taking an integrated approach to accessibility. Learn something new, by coming along to an event near you, or go for a personal trainer approach and let Stamford help you shape up for 2012.

Happy New Year folks! Here’s to many a faster, leaner and usable websites everywhere! :)