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Usability 101.
By Nicky
Danino
Despite all the hype about the latest innovations on the World
Wide Web, at the end of the day we must not forget that the human
is the central character, and that it is the user whom web sites
aim to please. It is only fitting, therefore, that it is the requirements
of the user that we should try to fulfil, and all others should
take secondary place.
Unfortunately, this is a much easier task to write about than
to actually put into practice. Many so called "web designers"
at the moment are churning out HTML like it was going out of fashion.
Brilliant graphics and tons of nifty little utilities are no replacement
for usable navigation. No matter how good the site looks, it will
be useless unless you give your visitor a viable system to get
around your site. Well thought out navigation will eventually
make an impression and if your content is appropriate, web users
will return to your site again and again.
Now we come to the crunch, we know that good navigation is essential
to the success of a website, but what exactly does the term mean?
There are some fundamental principles that successful navigation
is built upon which you should take into consideration at the
design stage, BEFORE actually writing any HTML There are no right
or wrong answers to achieving a successful navigation system,
only happy or frustrated users. However, there are some basic
principles which seem to work on the whole.
Consistency - by being predictable (and note this does not mean
boring) you can give the user a sense of your site's organisation.
In this context predictability means that if you have placed a
blue "home" icon on one page in the top left hand corner,
then this same button should also be BLUE in the rest of your
pages throughout the same site and also to be found in the TOP
LEFT HAND CORNER.
Your navigation design must provide links that make sense, so
their actions will be intuitively understood by means of their
graphical representation or their text links (be aware that some
user may have their images turned off, so you must provide a text
alternative to all images). Remember - remain consistent! The
lack of user interface standard on the web means that novice users
have no experience to fall back on when viewing web pages as design
differs enormously from site to site.
The least you can do is remain consistent within your own site.
Set yourself some standards and make sure you adhere to them.
The web provides great power for jumping about within your content,
always provide a secure anchor, with links that lead to expected
places, and build a familiar landscape to which users may return
at any time. A good example would be to agree upon some sort of
defining mark or logo which can be displayed across your site
to distinguish it from others i.e. The Macromedia Logo.
Access - you must give your users more than one way to access
a particular piece of information. Just because you have a front
page titled index.htm does not mean that the user will see that
page first. They may be entering your site from someone else's
link that has taken them into one of your subsections and will
therefore never be able to see your main page unless you gave
them a door in. Just think of your website as a group of roads
connecting a city together.
If a person takes the one road to your CV from that annoying picture
of your pet which you insisted on scanning, then you must provide
another road for them to go back to that picture at a later stage
if they so wish! You must offer alternatives.
Hierarchy - the goal is to provide the necessary information (i.e.
the content that the user is wanting) in the least possible steps
and the shortest time. To be able to achieve this a simple, organised
hierarchy is required. The solution to achieving this is LOGIC.
Although this sounds simple at first it is harder than you think.
What is logical to you and me may not be logical to the next person
that comes along to visit your site.
This is quite difficult to achieve and you may never please everyone,
however, you can be quite successful with the majority of people.
Keep it clear and simple, users should always be able to figure
out where they are in the scheme of things, they need to have
a sense of where they are placed as regards to your structure
of information. You must give users a visual guidance whilst they
are navigating your site.
Organisation - information must be organised in such a manner
that they can be divided into several logical (that word again)
units. People read from the web differently than they would from
paper. On average, a person will take 30% more time to read text
from a computer screen than they would from a book. Users will
not read long amounts of information, break them up into smaller
readable chunks that require minimal scrolling, we web users are
lazy and absolutely try to avoid coming into contact with that
scroll bar as often as we can.
Use your hierarchy to break up you information in accordance to
how important you feel it is. Major pages should be one level
down, whilst less demanded information could make up a subsection
in your hierarchy. Hierarchy is very important because people
understand them. From a hierarchical system it is then easier
to ease into more global navigation design, with more lateral
movement between pages, but still keeping with the hierarchy.
There is no such thing as a "formula" for successful
website navigation. However, trust your instincts and use your
common sense and hopefully you will not go drastically wrong.
Test, test and test again, you will soon realise if you have made
a serious navigational error from your users' reaction. Gradually
you will come to a reasonable solution for your website, give
the user what they need and they will truly reward you.
"O, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to
deceive!"
Sir Walter Scott
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Written by Nicky Danino
http://www.gib-online.com
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