Wodtke
Web design allows for lots of creativity, but there are guidelines that help make websites more efficient. Certain things help make the website as usable and effective as possible. There are plenty of rules that try to simplify these suggestions too much and they lose their value. A myth like, “Users of the website don’t read, so use as little writing as possible” is taken from the idea that people won’t sit down and read 20 page articles on a bright computer screen. The truth is that people will read content if it is about what they are looking for. Other ideas like avoiding pages that scroll don’t apply to all situations. Scrolling can prevent users from having to link through too many pages. Small font is difficult to read for content but helps to hide legal disclaimers that would take up space and draw unnecessary attention. While there is freedom in these guidelines, there are general things that users expect from any website. The design can be innovative and creative, but it should be logical enough and follow patterns enough that users can navigate the website with ease. It is expected to have a navigation bar at the top or the left and to have links in blue. These common knowledge ideas help give the users have a feeling for your website before they ever reach your home page. It is important to be consistent and consider standards, this will help users navigate pages they have not been to before and remember how to get back to those pages. While some users will remember how to use the site, it is important to rely on recognition rather than recall. Not only will this help first time users, it is also more reliable for returning users. Most people forget things within five minutes anyways, especially a website they may only spend five minutes looking at. If the user has to remember how to get somewhere chances are they won’t, but if they can logically find what they want then they are more likely to stay on the site and come back to it.
Some major pitfalls of web design are beginning to start the design before things are mapped out and some basic questions are asked. It is important to realize who the website is for so that the design can be focused to as specific of an audience as possible. This will make the site more useful and appealing to the people who need to visit the site. It is impossible to lay out a site and choose design features without knowing what the site is promoting and who it is promoting it to. Another problem is that most web users will never get past the point of being intermediate users of the site, but designers spend so much time and energy working on aspects of the site that only effect the small percentage of expert users. It is more important to get all of the basics worked out and to have the most efficient site for the most number of users rather than catering to a few users. Simple things that help the average user are logos and breadcrumbs to help people know where they are, where they have been and where they can go. Labels can help with the iceberg effect of showing just a taste of what the site has to offer. A smaller number of labels on the main page can help lead users to what they need without make them sort through everything unrelated. Trouble can come when designers try to market the website to too large of an audience. One idea to is take the Shirley Maclaine Method, or in other words, determine your most important and specific target audience and then create a sample person from this demographic. Then design the website with this one person in mind. It becomes much easier to speak to one person than hundreds or thousands.
An important idea is that the software is important for creating the website, but it isn’t the only thing. It is best to stay away from a computer until there is a good general concept of what the website will be. Sitting down with a pen and paper can help keep you from getting stuck in a design flaw or going down a wrong direction.
Web design is a long and complex process that requires collaboration with different designers and feedback required along the way. Development takes testing and alterations based on users and potential audience. One of the main themes is to keep the target audience a top priority in all of the planning and design steps along the way.
posted by Anonymous @ 11:08 AM
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