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Web Usability Guidelines
How to make your Web Site more usable
- Know your users - Identify all the different audiences (user
groups) who will use your site. Be sure that your design meets their
needs. On the Web "One size" rarely fits all.
- Architecture - Navigation is 80% determined by the structure
of your site. Studies show that users must find what they are looking
for within 3 clicks or they give up. Too many layers make your information
unfindable. Reduce the vertical layers in your site.
- Taskflow - Know who your users (audiences) are, what
their tasks are and what their online environment is. Page
flow must match taskflow. This may have nothing to do with
your organization structure.
- User Impatience - Users are impatient.
The average session time on the University
Web site is under 5 minutes. Help the user
maximize their results during their visit to
your site. Design for a 2 - 10 second load
time. Reuse headers and other graphics so the
user's browser can get them from cache instead
of download. Excessive scrolling should be
avoided. Test your page over the slowest connection
your user might use.
- Be Obvious -
Make the page's
controls obvious
to avoid confusion
between buttons,
graphics, banners
and emblems.
Icons should
be meaningful
not just cute.
- Motivate -
Design
for
the
specific
users
needs.
Make
it
easy
for
them.
Motivate
(draw,
direct)
different
users
clearly
to
the
parts
of
your
site
that
fit
them. "One
size" seldom
fits
all.
Design
for
the
different
audiences
and
motivate
to
the
appropiate
areas
of
your
site.
- Replicate
and
Reuse -
Use
well
designed
templates
for
the
7-12
page
types.
Use
the
templates
for
all
pages
beneath
the
top
level
page.
This
saves
you
time
and
makes
the
look
an feel
more
coherent
and
easier
for
the
user
to
understand.
Consider
color
coding
sections
rather
than
make
different
designs.
Caching
of
replicated
elements
makes
pages
load
faster.
- Useability
Test -
Test
users
with
prototypes
early
in
the
design
process.
LISTEN
to
what
they
tell
you and
redesign.
Do
not
wait
until
you
are
done
to
discover
user
issues.
It
makes more
work
for
you
to
find
out
late
in
the
development.
- Limit
the
Glitz -
Multimedia,
animation
and
sound
can
be
used to
draw
interest
to
specific
parts
of
a page
or
site.
But
stop
when
the
attention is
drawn
or
the
information
is
conveyed.
Too much
of
these
elements
is
distracting
and
slows the
load
down.
Remember
what
you
are
trying to
accomplish.
If
you
are
not
in the
entertainment
industry
limit
the
entertainment
to
useful attention
direction.
Limit
the
use
of
strong
colors. They
can
be
dirtracting.
Beware
of "favorite" colors.
User
test
everything.
- Technology's
Limits -
Know
the
limits
of
the
technology.
Identify the
hardware
browsers
and
browser
versions
used
by your
audience
(users)
and
test
your
HTML,
JavaScripts, Java,
sound
and
video
on
those
environments.
Test your
site
in
those
environments.
- Web
Reporting
Programs -
Use
a
Web reporting
program
to
monitor traffic
through
your
site. Discover
what
pages
are most
popular
and
get peak
usage.
Try
to determine
why.
What
pages make
a
user
leave? Do
some
pages
produce more
errors
than
other? Fix
what
you
find. Redesign
to
take
advantage of
the
what
works and
redesign
what
does not
work.
- Be Findable - If they can not find you your usability is zero. Design your pages and write your copy with the search services in mind. Placement in the search services reports is determined by the wording and key word density of your copy. Do not put you page title only in a graphic. The search service robots needs to see the title in text. They can not index the graphic because they can not read it. Every search service indexs differently. READ their guidelines. But do not believe all they say. They do have trade secrets. You many need a gateway page for each search service you want to place highly in. Realize this is a moving target and revisit and evaluate it regularly. Frames block search service indexing. Use them only where findability is not an issue. Use Meta tags for keywords and descriptions.
