Subconsciously this is what you’re asking yourself when you’re trying to hunt down a link on a site that you just can’t seem to find. It’s ridiculous to spend more than 1 minute to find something that should be very prominent on the page.

For example, last night I wanted to track the status of my income tax refund, so naturally I went to the IRS website. I sat there and stared at the screen for at least 1 to 2 minutes looking for anything related to “track my refund”…and nothing. I could not find it.

If this website were built with usability in mind they would know that during tax refund season everyone’s going to want to track its status. It amazes me that nothing on the home page directs you to the information you’re looking for.

My eyes started in the top left corner and worked their way down the left side because the list of items stood out to me. When I didn’t see it there I looked to the top right corner of the site and then down the right side. It then became a free-for-all as I tried to find what I was looking for. Still, I found nothing. I eventually got fed up with the site and did a Google search which led me to the page I struggled to locate.

I went through all that work to find out they haven’t even received my paper work! So, not only did I have a terrible user experience, but they had nothing on file for my claim as well.

This is a classic example of a site that tries to incorporate what they think is important on the home page. Too bad “tracking your refund” didn’t make their list of important things to include. Structurally and strategically, this site fails to take advantage of Web usability tactics.