10 Reminders for Usability Web Design To Make Site Visitors Adore You
By Kim Krause Berg
No matter how hard you try, there is always something wrong with your
website. There is always a critic. I have a friend outside the USA who
thankfully alerts me of my 404 error pages, which I appreciate, even
though I told him over the weekend he was making me scream at my own
inability to be perfect.
You don’t want to be caught with your pants down when trying
to present a professional site. Since my work permits me to see a great
deal of websites and Internet applications, I can note common problems.
This list is not about the common ones. This list is for repetitive
web design practices that drive site visitors crazy because we keep
driving them crazy.
Here’s what we do:
1. There is not enough persuasive or value oriented information to
convince visitors to stay on the page. I compare this to car shopping.
Automobile’s in a showroom have a sheet of paper taped to the
window that lists every detail you could possibly imagine about that
particular car. How often do you actually stand in one spot, directly
in front of the window, squinting to read the tiny words on the page?
Usually you are spotted by eagle-eyed car salespeople who leap to your
side and begin telling you all the reasons why the car is cool. They
ask what you had in mind too, and from there, start to narrow down matches
that fit your requirements. Write as if you are a car salesperson for
your homepage. Cut a deal. Introduce the manager. Offer a test drive.
2. Don’t place 100 links to the inside pages from your homepage.
It is not a playground where you run screaming out onto the area trying
to beat the first person to the swing set. A homepage should be married
to your site requirements and especially your visitors’ top tasks.
This could be price checking, searching for part numbers or clearance
items, finding your contact information or finding the only baby items
that are not pink or blue on the planet.
3. Quit talking about yourself so often. Nobody cares how great you
are. What they do care about is what you have for them that’s
worth their time and money. If you’re the All Powerful Oz, you
can slip that in, but just remember that even OZ lied to Dorothy. If
you need help with your ego, try the We We Monitor.
4. Feedback and email newsletter forms are some of the funniest things
I’ve witnessed on the web. Why would you demand a phone number
from someone who is just letting you know your links are broken? If
you want general feedback or better yet, sales leads, your form should
scream trust. Start by trusting that if site visitors want you to call
them, they’ll enter their phone number. Requiring one is something
managers tell you to do. Ignore them. Consider your prospects that desire
email contact only or impress them with customer service clues with
a choice of either email or phone contact. Never require a phone number
for free newsletter signups, but if you insist on this unheard of practice
you invented, offer a sample of the newsletter that requires that phone
number and by all means, tell us why you want to call us.
5. If your navigation only goes forward, you didn’t learn to
dance properly. The actual steps are:
a. Move forward
b. Move back if your partner doesn’t like that move
c. Continue forward if your partner really liked where you landed and
trusts where you want to go next.
In other words, don’t rely on the “Back” button to
go backwards. Guide your visitor’s steps backward, forward and
side to side with breadcrumb navigation, embedded text links, buttons
or links that continue a task’s forward momentum. Design navigation
to be fluid and effortless. Your visitors should be able to glide along
the dance floor and not get lost or spun around into dizzying loops.
6. Application functionality. If you only knew what exists out there
in web site land. For example, there was a travel site for camping that
only lets you book hotel rooms because the campgrounds weren’t
programmed into the options anywhere. There was the application with
many parts in the process, however, no matter what link or button was
pushed, it only landed on one of those parts. An application is only
intuitive if you program its brains properly
7. Mystery links confound visitors. Non-descriptive labels force us
to guess where we will end up. While I love a good game of hide and
seek as much as the next person, when I think I know where you’re
taking me and you take me somewhere totally different, I stop letting
you drive.
8. Related to this are Absolute Shock Links. These are navigation links
that take you to PDF files without any warning. Since it takes time
for the computer to go pull Adobe out of the kitchen, rev it up, load
the file and then I swear you have to resize the thing from 200% down
to something that doesn’t make you get the shakes reading, well,
you can see how a little warning is appreciated. The other form of visitor
link shock treatment is linking to a totally new domain, with new layout
and brand new navigation and no way back because it opened up a new
window and cut off all ties to where you were. At least, if you plan
on dumping your visitors off somewhere new, work out a nice little warning
system and arrange visitation time with the Mothership site.
9. If you want to capture someone’s attention, do it above the
page fold. Large monitors didn’t signal the end of browser laziness.
We still like an incentive to use the mouse to scroll, hover or click.
If half the page is needed to describe how to use a contact or sales
lead form, what is doing business with you like?
10. If you have a FAQ, there had better be a good reason for making
your visitors go to a page that displays a long list of questions and
answers. They want you to answer the question when they have the question.
I remember when I used to show horses and entered jumping classes that
required me to memorize the course I’d need to guide my horse
around. I could never understand why they didn’t put directions
inside the show ring itself that said “Turn left here”,
“Weave around these scary high jumps” and “Slow down,
the judge usually stands about here.” A FAQ is nice for backup
if you have a complicated process, but user instructions during the
actual task are far more considerate and easy to remember.
Finally, don’t despair. Web site surfers are often the most incredibly
patient and forgiving people, especially if you offer something they
want. Just remember to show them where you put it.
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Bio and Copyright
Usability Consultant, Kimberly Krause Berg, is the owner of UsabilityEffect.com
(www.usabilityeffect.com), Cre8pc.com
(www.cre8pc.com), and Cre8asiteForums
(www.cre8asiteforums.com/). Her background in organic search engine
optimization, combined with web site usability consulting, offers
unique insight into web site development.
Copyright 2007 Cre8pc.com. All Rights Reserved. Reprint rights by Permission
of the Author