Notes

2- Ten Principles Of Good WEB SITE DESIGN

1. 1. Don’t Make Users Think

According to Krug’s first law of usability, the web-page ought to be obvious and self-explanatory. When you’re creating a site, your job would be to get rid of the question marks - the decisions users have to make consciously, considering pros, cons plus alternatives.

If the navigation and site architecture aren’t intuitive, the number of question marks grows and makes it harder for users to comprehend the way the system works and how to get from point A to point B. A clear structure, moderate visual clues and easily recognizable links can help users to find their way to their aim.

2. Don’t Squander Users’ Patience

In every project when you are going to offer your visitors some service or tool, make an effort to keep your user requirements minimal. The less action is required from users to test a service, the much more likely a random visitor is to actually try it out. First-time website visitors are willing to play with the service, not filling long web forms for a merchant account they might never use in the future. Let users explore the site and discover your services without forcing them into sharing private data. It’s not reasonable to force users to enter a contact address to test the feature.Ideally remove all barriers, don’t require subscriptions or registrations first. A user registration alone will do of an impediment to user navigation to much lessen incoming traffic.

3. Manage To Focus Users’ Attention

As websites provide both static and dynamic content, some aspects of the user interface attract attention more than others do. Obviously, images are more eye-catching than the text - just as the sentences marked as bold tend to be more attractive than plain text.

The human eye is really a highly nonlinear device, and web-users can instantly recognize edges, patterns and motions. For this reason video-based advertisements are extremely annoying and distracting, but from the marketing perspective they perfectly get the job done of capturing users’ attention.


4. Strive For Feature Exposure

Modern web designs are usually criticized due to their approach of guiding users with visually appealing 1-2-3-done-steps, large buttons with visual effects etc. But from the design perspective these elements actually aren’t a bad thing. On the contrary, such guidelines are extremely effective because they lead the visitors through the website content in a very simple and user-friendly way.

5. Make Use Of Effective Writing

As the Web is different from print, it’s necessary to adjust the writing style to users’ preferences and browsing habits. Promotional writing won’t be read. Long text blocks without images and keywords marked in bold or italics will undoubtedly be skipped. Exaggerated language will undoubtedly be ignored.

Talk business. Avoid cute or clever names, marketing-induced names, company-specific brands, and unfamiliar technical names. For instance, in the event that you describe a service and want users to generate an account, “sign up” is better than “begin right now!” which will be again much better than “explore our servicess”.

An optimal solution for effective writing would be to

● use short and concise phrases (come to the point as quickly as possible),

● use scannable layout (categorize the content, use multiple heading levels, use visual elements and bulleted lists which break the flow of uniform text blocks),

● use plain and objective language (a promotion doesn’t need to sound like advertisement; give your users some reasonable and objective reason why they should use your service or stick to your website)

6. Strive For Simplicity

The “keep it simple”-principle (KIS) should be the primary goal of site design. Users are rare usuallyly on a niche site to enjoy the design; furthermore, generally they are looking for the info despite the style. Strive for simplicity rather than complexity.

From the visitors’ point of view, the best site design is really a pure text, without any advertisements or further content blocks matching the query visitors used or the content they’ve been looking for. This is one of the explanations why an user-friendly print-version of webpageswill be essential for good user experience.

7. Don’t Be Afraid Of The White Space

Actually it’s really hard to overestimate the importance of white space. Not merely does it help to reduce the cognitive load for the visitors, but it makes it possible to perceive the info presented on the screen. When a new visitor approaches a design layout, the very first thing he/she tries to accomplishwould be to scan the page and divide the content area into digestible bits of information.

Complex structures are harder to learn, scan, analyze and work with. When you havethe decision between separating two design segments by a visible line or by some whitespace, it’s usually better to use the whitespace solution. Hierarchical structures reduce complexity (Simon’s Law): the higher you manage to provide users with a feeling of visual hierarchy, the easier your articles will be to perceive.

8. Communicate Effectively With A “Visible Language”

In his papers on effective visual communication, Aaron Marcus states three fundamental principles involved in the use of the so-called “visible language” - the content users see on a screen.

● Organize: provide the user with a clear and consistent conceptual structure. Consistency, screen layout, relationships and navigability are essential concepts of organization. Exactly the same conventions and rules should be put on all elements.

● Economize: do probably the most with the least quantity of cues and visual elements. Four major points to be looked at: simplicity, clarity, distinctiveness, and emphasis. Simplicity includes only sun and rain that are most important for communication. Clarity: all components should be designed so their meaning isn't ambiguous. Distinctiveness: the important properties of the necessary elements should become distinguishable. Emphasis: the main elements should be easily perceived.

● Communicate: match the presentation to the capabilities of an individual. The user interface must keep in balance legibility, readability, typography, symbolism, multiple views, and color or texture to be able to communicate successfully. Use max. 3 typefaces in no more than 3 point sizes - no more than 18 words or 50-80 characters per type of text.

9. Conventions Are Our Friends

Conventional design of site elements doesn’t create a boring web site. In fact, conventions are very useful because they reduce the learning curve, the need to figure out how things work. For example, it would be an usability nightmare usually if all websites had different visual presentation of RSS-feeds. That’s not that not the same as our regular life where we tend to get accustomed to basic principles of how we organize data (folders) or do shopping (keeping products).

With conventions you can gain users’ confidence, trust, reliability and prove your credibility. Follow users’ expectations - understand what they’re expecting from the site navigation, text structure, search placement etc.

10. Test Early, Test Often

This so-called TETO-principle should be applied to every web design project as usability tests often provide crucial insights into significant problems and issues linked to a given layout.

Test not too late, not too little and not for the wrong reasons. In the latter case it’s necessary to understand that most design decisions are local; which means that you can’t universally answer whether some layout is preferable to the other one as you need to investigate it from a very specific viewpoint (considering requirements, stakeholders, budget etc.).

Some important points to bear in mind:

● according to Steve Krug, testing one user is 100% much better than testing non-e and testing one user early in the project is better than tests 50 close to the end. Accoring to Boehm’s first law, errors are most frequent during requirements and design activities and so are the more expensive the later they're removed.

● testing is an iterative process. Which means that you design something, test it, fix it and test it again. There might be problems which haven’t end up beingen found through the first round as users were practically blocked by other problems.

● usability tests always produce useful results. Either you’ll be pointed to the issues you have or you’ll become pointed to the absence of major design flaws which is in both cases a good insight for your project.

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