Approach to Web Design
Usability is the key for any website. First of all any website should be user-friendly and user centric has become a standard approach for successful and profit-oriented web design.
Study users psychology
Basically, users’ habits on the Web aren’t that different from customers’ habits in a store. Visitors glance at each new page, scan some of the text, and click on the first link that catches their interest or vaguely resembles the thing they are looking for. In fact, there are large parts of the page they don’t even look at. Following are the key points
- Users appreciate quality and credibility.
- Users don’t read, they scan.
- Web users are impatient and insist on instant gratification.
- Users don’t make optimal choices.
- Users follow their intuition.
- Users want to have control.
Don’t make users think
According to Krug’s first law of usability, the web-page should be obvious and self-explanatory. When you’re creating a site, your job is to get rid of the question marks — the decisions users need to make consciously, considering pros, cons and alternatives.
Don’t squander users’ patience
In every project when you are going to offer your visitors some service or tool, try to keep your user requirements minimal. The less action is required from users to test a service, the more likely a random visitor is to actually try it out. First-time visitors are willing to play with the service, not filling long web forms for an 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 an email address to test the feature.
Manage to focus users’ attention
As web-sites 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 are more attractive than plain text.
Strive for feature exposure
Modern web designs are usually criticised 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 as they lead the visitors through the site content in a very simple and user-friendly way.
Make use of effective writing
As the Web is different from print, it is necessary to adjust the writing style to user’s preferences and browsing habits. Promotional writing will not be read. Long text blocks without images and keywords marked in bold or italics will be skipped. Exaggerated language will be ignored.
Strive for simplicity
The “keep it simple”-principle (KIS) should be the primary goal of site design. Users are rarely on a site to enjoy the design; furthermore, in most cases they are looking for the information despite the design. Strive for simplicity instead of complexity.
Don’t be afraid of the white space
Actually it is really hard to overestimate the importance of white space. Not only does it help to reduce the cognitive load for the visitors, but it makes it possible to perceive the information presented on the screen. When a new visitor approaches a design layout, the first thing he/she tries to do is to scan the page and divide the content area into digestible pieces of information.
Conventions are our friends
Conventional design of site elements does not result in a boring web site. In fact, conventions are very useful as they reduce the learning curve, the need to figure out how things work. For instance, it would be a usability nightmare if all web-sites had different visual presentation of RSS-feeds. That is not that different from our regular life where we tend to get used to basic principles of how we organize data (folders) or do shopping (placement of products).
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 related to a given layout.
if you want a great site, you’ve got to test.
Tags: attention, cognitive load, control, credibility, effective writing, focus, gratification, guidelines, insights, intution, quality, self-explanatory, web design