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10 Principles Of Effective Web Design
January 31st, 2008 in How-To | 335 Comments
Usability and the utility, not the visual design, determine the success or failure of a web-site. Since the visitor of the page is the only person who clicks the mouse and therefore decides everything, user-centric design has become a standard approach for successful and profit-oriented web design. After all, if users can’t use a feature, it might as well not exist.
We aren’t going to discuss the implementation details (e.g. where the search box should be placed) as it has already been done in a number of articles; instead we focus on the main principles, heuristics and approaches for effective web design — approaches which, used properly, can lead to more sophisticated design decisions and simplify the process of perceiving presented information.
Please notice that
- you might be interested in the usability-related articles about 10 Usability Nightmares and 30 Usability Issues we’ve published before,
- we’ll cover more principles of effective design in our following posts. Therefore you might want to subscribe to our RSS-feed.
This article has been translated to Hebrew.
Principles Of Effective Web Design
In order to use the principles properly we first need to understand how users interact with web-sites, how they think and what are the basic patterns of users’ behavior.
How do users think?
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’re looking for. In fact, there are large parts of the page they don’t even look at.
Most users search for something interesting (or useful) and clickable; as soon as some promising candidates are found, users click. If the new page doesn’t meet users’ expectations, the Back button is clicked and the search process is continued.
- Users appreciate quality and credibility. If a page provides users with high-quality content, they are willing to compromise the content with advertisements and the design of the site. This is the reason why not-that-well-designed web-sites with high-quality content gain a lot of traffic over years. Content is more important than the design which supports it.
- Users don’t read, they scan. Analyzing a web-page, users search for some fixed points or anchors which would guide them through the content of the page.
Users don’t read, they scan. Notice how “hot” areas abrupt in the middle of sentences. This is typical for the scanning process. - Web users are impatient and insist on instant gratification. Very simple principle: If a web-site isn’t able to meet users’ expectations, then designer failed to get his job done properly and the company loses money. The higher is the cognitive load and the less intuitive is the navigation, the more willing are users to leave the web-site and search for alternatives. [JN / DWU]
- Users don’t make optimal choices. Users don’t search for the quickest way to find the information they’re looking for. Neither do they scan web-page in a linear fashion, going sequentially from one site section to another one. Instead users satisfice; they choose the first reasonable option. As soon as they find a link that seems like it might lead to the goal, there is a very good chance that it will be immediately clicked. Optimizing is hard, and it takes a long time. Satisficing is more efficient. [video]
Both pictures show: sequential reading flow doesn’t work in the Web. Right screenshot on the image at the bottom describes the scan path of a given page. - Users follow their intuition. In most cases users muddle through instead of reading the information a designer has provided. According to Steve Krug, the basic reason for that is that users don’t care. “If we find something that works, we stick to it. It doesn’t matter to us if we understand how things work, as long as we can use them. If your audience is going to act like you’re designing billboard, then design great billboards.”
- Users want to have control. Users want to be able to control their browser and rely on the consistent data presentation throughout the site. E.g. they don’t want new windows popping up unexpectedly and they want to be able to get back with a “Back”-button to the site they’ve been before: therefore it’s a good practice to never open links in new browser windows.
1. 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.
If the navigation and site architecture aren’t intuitive, the number of question marks grows and makes it harder for users to comprehend how the system works and how to get from point A to point B. A clear structure, moderate visual clues and easily recognizable links can help users to find their path to their aim.
Let’s take a look at an example. Beyondis.co.uk claims to be “beyond channels, beyond products, beyond distribution”. What does it mean? Since users tend to explore web-sites according to the “F”-pattern, these three statements would be the first elements users will see on the page once it is loaded.
Although the design itself is simple and intuitive, to understand what the page is about the user needs to search for the answer. This is what an unnecessary question mark is. It’s designer’s task to make sure that the number of question marks is close to 0. The visual explanation is placed on the right hand side. Just exchanging both blocks would increase usability.
ExpressionEngine uses the very same structure like Beyondis, but avoids unnecessary question marks. Furthermore, the slogan becomes functional as users are provided with options to try the service and download the free version.
By reducing cognitive load you make it easier for visitors to grasp the idea behind the system. Once you’ve achieved this, you can communicate why the system is useful and how users can benefit from it. People won’t use your web site if they can’t find their way around it.
2. 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.
As Ryan Singer — the developer of the 37Signals team — states, users would probably be eager to provide an email address if they were asked for it after they’d seen the feature work, so they had some idea of what they were going to get in return.
Stikkit is a perfect example for a user-friendly service which requires almost nothing from the visitor which is unobtrusive and comforting. And that’s what you want your users to feel on your web site.
Apparently, Mite requires more. However the registration can be done in less than 30 seconds — as the form has horizontal orientation, the user doesn’t even need to scroll the page.
Ideally remove all barriers, don’t require subscriptions or registrations first. A user registration alone is enough of an impediment to user navigation to cut down on incoming traffic.
3. 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.
The human eye is a highly non-linear device, and web-users can instantly recognize edges, patterns and motions. This is why video-based advertisements are extremely annoying and distracting, but from the marketing perspective they perfectly do the job of capturing users’ attention.
Humanized.com perfectly uses the principle of focus. The only element which is directly visible to the users is the word “free” which works attractive and appealing, but still calm and purely informative. Subtle hints provide users with enough information of how to find more about the “free” product.
Focusing users’ attention to specific areas of the site with a moderate use of visual elements can help your visitors to get from point A to point B without thinking of how it actually is supposed to be done. The less question marks visitors have, the better sense of orientation they have and the more trust they can develop towards the company the site represents. In other words: the less thinking needs to happen behind the scenes, the better is the user experience which is the aim of usability in the first place.
4. Strive for feature exposure
Modern web designs are usually criticized 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.
Dibusoft.com combines visual appeal with clear site structure. The site has 9 main navigation options which are visible at the first glance. The choice of colors might be too light, though.
Letting the user see clearly what functions are available is a fundamental principle of successful user interface design. It doesn’t really matter how this is achieved. What matters is that the content is well-understood and visitors feel comfortable with the way they interact with the system.
5. Make use of effective writing
As the Web is different from print, it’s necessary to adjust the writing style to users’ preferences and browsing habits. Promotional writing won’t be read. Long text blocks without images and keywords marked in bold or italics will be skipped. Exaggerated language will be ignored.
Talk business. Avoid cute or clever names, marketing-induced names, company-specific names, and unfamiliar technical names. For instance, if you describe a service and want users to create an account, “sign up” is better than “start now!” which is again better than “explore our services”.
Eleven2.com gets directly to the point. No cute words, no exaggerated statements. Instead a price: just what visitors are looking for.
An optimal solution for effective writing is to
- use short and concise phrases (come to the point as quickly as possible),
- use scannable layout (categorize the content, use multiple heading levels, use visual elements and bulleted lists which break the flow of uniform text blocks),
- use plain and objective language (a promotion doesn’t need to sound like advertisement; give your users some reasonable and objective reason why they should use your service or stay on your web-site)
6. 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.
Crcbus provides visitors with a clean and simple design. You may have no idea what the site is about as it is in Italian, however you can directly recognize the navigation, header, content area and the footer. Notice how even icons manage to communicate the information clearly. Once the icons are hovered, additional information is provided.
From the visitors’ point of view, the best site design is a pure text, without any advertisements or further content blocks matching exactly the query visitors used or the content they’ve been looking for. This is one of the reasons why a user-friendly print-version of web pages is essential for good user experience.
Finch clearly presents the information about the site and gives visitors a choice of options without overcrowding them with unnecessary content.
7. Don’t be afraid of the white space
Actually it’s 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.
Complex structures are harder to read, scan, analyze and work with. If you have the choice between separating two design segments by a visible line or by some whitespace, it’s usually better to use the whitespace solution. Hierarchical structures reduce complexity (Simon’s Law): the better you manage to provide users with a sense of visual hierarchy, the easier your content will be to perceive.
White space is good. Cameron.io uses white space as a primary design element. The result is a well-scannable layout which gives the content a dominating position it deserves.
8. Communicate effectively with a “visible language”
In his papers on effective visual communication, Aaron Marcus states three fundamental principles involved in the use of the so-called “visible language” — the content users see on a screen.
- Organize: provide the user with a clear and consistent conceptual structure. Consistency, screen layout, relationships and navigability are important concepts of organization. The same conventions and rules should be applied to all elements.
- Economize: do the most with the least amount of cues and visual elements. Four major points to be considered: simplicity, clarity, distinctiveness, and emphasis. Simplicity includes only the elements that are most important for communication. Clarity: all components should be designed so their meaning is not ambiguous. Distinctiveness: the important properties of the necessary elements should be distinguishable. Emphasis: the most important elements should be easily perceived.
- Communicate: match the presentation to the capabilities of the user. The user interface must keep in balance legibility, readability, typography, symbolism, multiple views, and color or texture in order to communicate successfully. Use max. 3 typefaces in a maximum of 3 point sizes — a maximum of 18 words or 50-80 characters per line of text.
9. Conventions are our friends
Conventional design of site elements doesn’t 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’s 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).
With conventions you can gain users’ confidence, trust, reliability and prove your credibility. Follow users’ expectations — understand what they’re expecting from a site navigation, text structure, search placement etc. (see Nielsen’s Usability Alertbox for more information)
BabelFish in use: Amazon.com in Russian.
A typical example from usability sessions is to translate the page in Japanese (assuming your web users don’t know Japanese, e.g. with Babelfish) and provide your usability testers with a task to find something in the page of different language. If conventions are well-applied, users will be able to achieve a not-too-specific objective, even if they can’t understand a word of it.
Steve Krug suggests that it’s better to innovate only when you know you really have a better idea, but take advantages of conventions when you don’t.
10. 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.
Test not too late, not too little and not for the wrong reasons. In the latter case it’s necessary to understand that most design decisions are local; that means that you can’t universally answer whether some layout is better than the other one as you need to analyze it from a very specific point of view (considering requirements, stakeholders, budget etc.).
Some important points to keep in mind:
- according to Steve Krug, testing one user is 100% better than testing none and testing one user early in the project is better than testing 50 near the end. Accoring to Boehm’s first law, errors are most frequent during requirements and design activities and are the more expensive the later they are removed.
- testing is an iterative process. That means that you design something, test it, fix it and then test it again. There might be problems which haven’t been found during the first round as users were practically blocked by other problems.
- usability tests always produce useful results. Either you’ll be pointed to the problems you have or you’ll be pointed to the absence of major design flaws which is in both cases a useful insight for your project.
- according to Weinberg’s law, a developer is unsuited to test his or her code. This holds for designers as well. After you’ve worked on a site for few weeks, you can’t observe it from a fresh perspective anymore. You know how it is built and therefore you know exactly how it works — you have the wisdom independent testers and visitors of your site wouldn’t have.
Bottom line: if you want a great site, you’ve got to test.
References
- Designing Effective User Interfaces by Suzanne Martin
- Summary on Web Design
- UID presentation (Flash)
- Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines
- “The psychology of computer programming” by Gerald Weinberg
- “Designing Web Usability” by Jakob Nielsen [JN / DWU]
- “Prioritizing Web Usability” by Jakob Nielsen
- “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug
- “Usability for the Web: Designing Web Sites that Work” by Tom Brinck, Darren Gergle, Scott Wood
- A Summary of Principles for User-Interface Design
Grady (January 31st, 2008, 8:23 am)
Great Article!
Daniel (January 31st, 2008, 8:37 am)
10. Test early, test often
This has to be the best tip!
Thank you for this smashing-roundup!
Raj from BlogHash.com (January 31st, 2008, 8:42 am)
Wonderful. Bookmarked to use it for my next website design.
Matthew J (January 31st, 2008, 8:45 am)
Super article. I really think that we as web developers must focus on keeping things simple. Remember the acronym KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)!
Jeff (January 31st, 2008, 8:51 am)
A bit unrelated, but it’s a shame Stikkit is Link [www.kickflop.net].
Barend (January 31st, 2008, 8:55 am)
Nice Article! Love the usability stuff!
Chris (January 31st, 2008, 9:00 am)
Love the article, hits on some very important parts. Made may sit back and think of the things i’ve done in the past and how it affects things i do now. These type of articles makes a developer rethink the whole process of building a website. Which i think keeps your mind open to new methods.
Creativepayne (January 31st, 2008, 9:04 am)
Good advise. It’s always good to take a step back from design, personal taste etc to make sure that it is easy to use for the audience. My toughest critic is my dad ie someone who is not all that web saavy. But a lot of the time this is our audience, someone who is not all that good with computers.
Thanks for the article
mcm69 (January 31st, 2008, 9:10 am)
I’m still amazed I wasn’t reading your website before. Thanks a lot.
deniar (January 31st, 2008, 9:29 am)
Wow nice article. I didn’t think so much about these. Thanks for the article
Thomassl (January 31st, 2008, 9:41 am)
Really helpful article.
Juanma (January 31st, 2008, 10:18 am)
GREAT STUFF.
This is definitively going on my Link [www.ttthings.com] post.
theSupermarket (January 31st, 2008, 10:19 am)
This article is frustrating for 10 + 1 reasons almost:
-1 “Usability and the utility, not the design, determine the success or failure of a web-site.”
Usability and the utility are the design. If by design you mean decoration, that too has a rich history filled with meaning.
0 How do users think?
That’s like asking “How do people think?”. they think in all kinds of ways, rational, irrational, quickly, slowly, etc. There is no point in asking this question because the answers are infinite. I agree with this statement “users follow their intuition”, which is totally unpredictable.
1 “Don’t make users think”
That’s right people. Strive for the status quo and the familiar. Do what has been done before and make sure people are comfortable. Wear your khakis and polo shirts.
Making something “obvious and self-explanatory” doesn’t hinge on simplicity or how much someone has to ‘think’.
2 “Don’t squander users’ patience”
Okay. How will you know what will make them impatient?
3 “Manage to focus users’ attention”
This is all adding up to a Target commercial.
4 “Strive for feature exposure”
What?
5 “Make use of effective writing”
Even if it us unnecessary. Just put it in somewhere.
6 “Strive for simplicity”
Strive for whatever you want. Do something crazy. Do something dumb. Do something elegant. Do something messy. They are all valuable.
7 “Don’t be afraid of the white space”
Don’t be afraid to dump everything you own into a pile on your living-room floor. It will probably be more interesting than lots of white space.
8 “Communicate effectively with a “visible language” ”
9 “Conventions are our friends”
Here, Here, for mediocrity!
10 “Test early, test often”
Just wing it. It will force you to be creative and maybe do something you’ve never done before.
ak (January 31st, 2008, 10:52 am)
@theSupermarket: you have no idea what you are talking about.
WebGuyGary (January 31st, 2008, 10:59 am)
The above poster proves the point that you can never make EVERYONE happy….but atleast they were able to get out their frustrations by posting that lengthy list.
Hope you feel better now.
:)
Ignacio (January 31st, 2008, 11:28 am)
I agree with Thomassl
Therapix (January 31st, 2008, 11:30 am)
Great article even if the first part was featured in another article (that I actually printed in COLOR with my expensive HP printer, but I don’t care, totally worth it).
Fazai38 (January 31st, 2008, 11:32 am)
Amazing.. !! this is a real good reference for my upcoming projects !
Artofid (January 31st, 2008, 11:39 am)
I really love this stuff :)
moritzpeuser (January 31st, 2008, 11:48 am)
Thank you for this post article!
It’s really useful for new webdesigners!
moritzpeuser (January 31st, 2008, 11:49 am)
Thank you for this article!
It’s really useful for new webdesigners!
BeroFX (January 31st, 2008, 12:07 pm)
Great stuff, keep on the good work! :)
Erika (January 31st, 2008, 12:27 pm)
If you would like an excellent example for #6, you should use kokokaka.com as opposed to the crcbus… especially since crcbus ripped off kokokaka, and kokokaka documented it in the “style of the day” section of their site. :)
Aaron Riddle (January 31st, 2008, 12:29 pm)
Wonderful article…best one I have read this week (and I read a lot of them). Thank you for sharing such great information.
Erika (January 31st, 2008, 12:29 pm)
If you need a good sample website for #6, you should use kokokaka.com as opposed to crcbus… especially considering when crcbus ripped off kokokaka, they documented it in their ’style of the day’ area. :)
Stefan (January 31st, 2008, 12:58 pm)
I don’t agree with you in that first point. Sometimes users have to think about websites. It’s about content that matters. And about development of our work. There has been a basic article by Link [www.devlounge.net]. I really didn’t like it when i read it the first time. But actually i do think that we have to think about it. Maybe it’s up for transcending designs? How can we bring the web one step further without changing ourselves and our work?
Stefan
Igor Jovic (January 31st, 2008, 1:36 pm)
This is what I call a Qualitative Post .
Great Job!
Marcio Okabe (January 31st, 2008, 2:28 pm)
Very good article! All communication professionals should read it.
Matty (January 31st, 2008, 3:00 pm)
Outstanding article!
I try following these principles in web design and they seem to work great.
I tried to making the following website Link [], applying these principles. I don’t know what to make of it, feedback would be great :)
I don’t know what to make of it :S
Mat (January 31st, 2008, 3:01 pm)
Great article except I read #7 (don’t be afraid of whitespace) and I wonder whatever happened to the nice flow that SM used to be. The damn column is so narrow now that there’s either too much whitespace (on the right) or not enough (on the left).
shirley (January 31st, 2008, 3:34 pm)
I’m sorry, I couldn’t possibly follow any web design suggestions from a site as poorly designed as this one. One narrow column and a page full of ads? You’ve got to be kidding me!
Paul (January 31st, 2008, 3:36 pm)
Surely, usability is objective. What works for some people might not for others..and unless your data sample is huge, you cant make statements as such. That said, the trends above are a damn good basis to work from.
marko (January 31st, 2008, 4:06 pm)
Great, really great,
I’m especially amazed with the “don’t be afraid of the white space-part”; in the 11th and 12th century architects and artist put many paintings and sculptures in the interior of churches, not only to teach the illiterate folk, but also to avert the “HORROR VACUUI”, the fear of empty space, empty walls…. many centuries later Malevich did the complete opposite. The white square on white.
It’s obvious this article is made by a proffesional!!!
Marko, BA in arts+web designer
Croatia
chris (January 31st, 2008, 4:35 pm)
nice article, does anyone know the font used for the finch logo fresh creative? Its pretty sweet. I wanna buy it.
Norbert (January 31st, 2008, 4:36 pm)
“Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug is a great book. Worth reading!
Braintrove.com (January 31st, 2008, 4:42 pm)
Great resource! Really useful stuff.
Steven Snell (January 31st, 2008, 4:45 pm)
I like the advice to strive for simplicity. I enjoy visiting sites that don’t over complicate things. Thanks for another great article.
extreme webmaster (January 31st, 2008, 4:54 pm)
Useful stuff. Applicable in all areas where there is any human-machine interaction involved. And Steve Krug’s book rules. He is a master - he explained these concepts in a way so simple, entertaining and clear, that his book is really a classic.
Edi (January 31st, 2008, 5:00 pm)
10 point you have to follow
Tom (January 31st, 2008, 8:41 pm)
a great and comprehensive article, I’ve to keep in mind with my further designs
.NET Randz (January 31st, 2008, 10:49 pm)
Great article. Thanks for sharing. I have been a web developer for quite some time and ideas presented here are very much welcome.
Jan (January 31st, 2008, 11:11 pm)
Nice Article!.. i really do find some sites that looks nice and eyecandies but its usability specially rule no.”1″.. many of them leaves questions like “what the hell does that mean?” and “what’s this site really do?”, this article is really a big help for me to understand more about usability. Thanks!
bakazero (February 1st, 2008, 12:39 am)
Yes, the people were impatient…
When see a site with great content, they wants to get a lot of information site fast…
So, it’s good to structured the navigation to help the people…
This is really great explanation about web-design principle.
Shycon (February 1st, 2008, 1:05 am)
Great, all-around tips for designers!
Micah (February 1st, 2008, 1:08 am)
The 4th bullet under the “How do users think?” headline reads:
“As soon as they find a link that seems like it might lead to the goal, there is a very good change that it will be immediately clicked.”
Is it me or doesn’t it seem it should read: “… there is a very good chance that it will be immediately clicked.” ???
Great article though, Just wish authors would catch this kind of thing, it’s starting to get old.
– Micah
Rod (February 1st, 2008, 1:28 am)
err… ok, so.. how you can have a note like this,, and not a “share it” link?.. i want to send this note to someone… didnt find the “share it” feature…..??!!!!
this is a “do what i say must not what i do” sample =P
Spyros Papaspyropoulos (February 1st, 2008, 1:38 am)
Great article! Some things written in it had never crossed my mind.
Many thanks for this!
Abhijit (February 1st, 2008, 1:48 am)
I mean its simply great… really loved the article..
Jseen (February 1st, 2008, 1:51 am)
Superb Article.
Provides great insights into a subject which is usually not given much consideration.
Jim (February 1st, 2008, 1:51 am)
Good points! I’ve have a look to my site from this perspective! Thx
Claire (February 1st, 2008, 1:52 am)
Good work! Interesting and complete.
Felix (February 1st, 2008, 2:02 am)
I definetly will save this for future reference. Great writing guys! Thanks.
郑永挺 (February 1st, 2008, 2:08 am)
cool work! i enjoy it!
Bughy (February 1st, 2008, 2:11 am)
Awesome article! Comes right when i need it the most. Thanks SM!
ronnie (February 1st, 2008, 2:32 am)
Great post, many useful tips in here.
Doi Lei (February 1st, 2008, 2:45 am)
Beautiful stuff. Your articles are all starry in my Google Reader ;)
Richard Francis Kay (February 1st, 2008, 3:19 am)
Good to point this out! Especially ”cos it’s tempting to create websites “flooded” by design. The websites nowadays are really appealing, but they lean more towards an experience. And that’s not the main point, if you are searching/browsing. Websites should be serving the main goal: giving information. Design shouldn’t cover it up. And therefore should be used effectively - usability and focus are key - design is in a supporting role (depending ofcourse - or just only make a sitemap without any design - just fonts - or is that design too?) :-P
Leo (February 1st, 2008, 3:35 am)
I like this article, some very valid pointers, which, if followed can result in a well ‘designed’ project.
I also like the Supermarket’s comments from a ‘creative’ point of view….a messy unpredictable palette of ideas can always be good, to push the boundaries - but this articles lays foundations to ensure that however creative you feel, your user’s will still be able to easily use the machine you build.
tewoos (February 1st, 2008, 3:39 am)
great article for web designers… thanks…
anielpep (February 1st, 2008, 4:49 am)
Good principles in theory, but in real situations where the customer satisfaction is the goal of the design, some of this principles are not used.
Daniel (February 1st, 2008, 4:56 am)
Nice Article. Every web designer/developer must know this.
Michael Hughes (February 1st, 2008, 5:12 am)
“Web users are inpatient and insist on instant gratification. ” Goes along with “Web gurus don’t edit themselves well.” Unless you meant to say that patients in the hospital want instant gratification while those on outpatient status are content to wait.
rich (February 1st, 2008, 5:43 am)
Thanks, the heat maps are really interesting, and useful tip about the F pattern, as for printed stuff a typical scan is a Z.
Kary (February 1st, 2008, 7:17 am)
Great post! =]
ptamaro (February 1st, 2008, 7:50 am)
Another poignant article — thanks! Regarding Principle #1, Steve Krug’s book is fantastic, and I strongly recommend reading it… Link [www.dontmakemethink.com]
Mouton (February 1st, 2008, 9:44 am)
Really good article even if some of the points can be discussed… Really good sum-up for great designs!
syung (February 1st, 2008, 10:31 am)
“f you have the choice between separating two design segments by a visible line or by some whitespace, it’s usually better to use the whitespace solution”Good article, but I disagree with the above statement. Whitespace could be used to separate two design segments for sites with minimal content, but for sites with an abundant amount of content, lines are better because lines are visual cues of separation. Having whitespace to separate segments is like throwing a pile of clothes in a room. It just looks disorganized. Look at www.nytimes.com Can you imagine this site without lines?
PeterMQ (February 1st, 2008, 10:37 am)
Great article as always.
kl3tte (February 1st, 2008, 12:40 pm)
This is a great summery. I also recommend “Designing Web Usability” and “Don’t make me think”. I guess your post is a great summary of boths books.
dblr (February 1st, 2008, 1:06 pm)
Always a pleasure to read your articles, thanx for the amazing contributions to the web community.
Ady (February 1st, 2008, 2:52 pm)
ThanX for this Article … it`s very useful for web designers. I`m new in this area of web design and I had really need this. Thank YOU Again
Howleykook (February 1st, 2008, 3:35 pm)
Nice article. Good fundamentals matched with great grafix, who would have thought that could work?
Thanks, bookmarked!
Bob (February 1st, 2008, 5:29 pm)
Another great article. I wish I could convince all of the departments at my office that insist on being on the homepage of this.
To add on to this article, there are 5 things that I would consider are essential to a website;
1. Site logo - distinguishing feature across all pages of the site. Seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be suprised
2. Search Function - some users are search heavy, others are scanners. In addition, check your internal search just as you would with your external search. It will do wonders for your conversion rate.
3. Sections - Permanent navigation that corresponds and links to the main sections of your site. Navigation should be consistent and prevelent on all pages of your site.
4. Utilities - Utilities are those critical elements to a web site’s functionality that don’t necessarily add to the site’s content or sections. Examples include sitemap, about us, contact us and help.
5.Home Button and “You are Here” indicators - let the user know where they are in relation to the rest of the site. If they feel they are getting in over their head they will usually just leave.
Good work again,
Bob
Link [www.onehalfamazing.com]
Leo Klein (February 1st, 2008, 9:56 pm)
Great post. I wish I could brand the points on the behinds of a couple of clients I’ve had.
My only small quibble is with the statement, “the best site design is a pure text”.
This of course is not true and is easy enough to demonstrate. There are design elements that go beyond “pure text” and people expect and require them. Indeed, it’s be strange if they didn’t.
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (February 2nd, 2008, 3:33 am)
@Leo Klein: it wasn’t meant to sound like this. What it means is that in the best case users who are searching for information would like to see the contet with exactly the kind of data they’re looking for. Not more, not less. But, of course, there is no such thing as “best site design” or something similar.
Jason Reed (February 2nd, 2008, 12:33 pm)
The comments about the white space are a great reference, I don’t think they are used enough. Check out A List Apart for another good white space article.
Website Design (February 3rd, 2008, 9:52 am)
I really appreciate the point of keeping things simple. Often clients want to slam as much content as humanly possible into every space of their pages. This is aggravating and most people do not wish to see this when visiting a website. Well spaced thoughtful layouts are always the best idea. Make use of your users screen real estate regardless of what resolution their at. Cluttered websites definitely aid to fickle traffic.
Sharp (February 3rd, 2008, 2:59 pm)
First of all, the website shouldn’t be displayed in a narrow column. This page layout is awful and makes the article painful to read…
Ananda Rizki (February 3rd, 2008, 11:52 pm)
your article remembering me with a book with the title “Dont Make me Think!” (author: Steve Kurg)
rebeka dremelj (February 4th, 2008, 12:08 am)
Good guidelines with great examples! Will sure keep them in mind when designing my next website.
taxa inmatriculare (February 4th, 2008, 12:51 am)
Great stuff, article #7 sounds very interesting, good work guys!
Klaus (February 4th, 2008, 2:08 am)
Great! Usability in a Nutshell.
Rock on!
Owen Cutajar (February 4th, 2008, 7:43 am)
Great post … I love the heat maps!
But when you say “Don’t be afraid of white space” I hope you’re not recommending people use only the left-most 20% of their page for content .. (bit like this page looks to me at the moment). Can’t you make your main content area a bit wider?
Reynder Bruyns (February 4th, 2008, 7:57 am)
The first sentence is a bit off I think. Via good visual design you get good usability.
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (February 4th, 2008, 8:07 am)
@Owen Cutajar: we use a fluid layout. The layout will expand if the window size is bigger. You have the full freedom to see the site as you wish as it dynamically fits to the size of your browser window.
Steve (February 4th, 2008, 8:35 am)
Quote:
Angstrom (February 4th, 2008, 10:02 am)
I have to agree that the layout of Smashing seems to be unpleasant now, the right hand column is way too dominant. It takes at least 50% of the screen at my normal browser window size.
Have you changed layouts?
I am forced to fullsize my browser window up to 1280×1024 before it becomes less unpleasant. At 1024×768 it must be unbearable.
I am actually considering writing my own custom CSS just so I can look at your site without wincing. I have already had to adblock your sponsors to try and balance the page up a bit.
Angstrom (February 4th, 2008, 10:22 am)
Oh man I hate the 50/50 layout of Smashing magazine.
sure I could re-size my browser up to fill my whole screen in an attempt to get the right balance, but that still isn’t enough. I have to drag the browser window across two screens before the layout looks right. By that I mean , the right column is between 30% and 25% of the window width. 50% - 45% is ugly as hell.
Please, please, please reduce the width of your right column, it dominates the actual content.
I commented on this earlier but that one vanished .
gnuys (February 4th, 2008, 4:00 pm)
Good post, but I disagree with “If you have the choice between separating two design segments by a visible line or by some whitespace, it’s usually better to use the whitespace solution.” A line is a visual cue for separation. Using whitespace to separate segments with very little content is ok (still better to use a line), but not using a line to separate segments with abundant amount of content is like looking at a pile of clothes in my room. Can you imagine nytimes.com without lines?
gsuez (February 4th, 2008, 8:30 pm)
Dont make me think!!!!
this is the great book for a good web design!
very nice summary.
LiquidGeneration (February 5th, 2008, 12:46 pm)
Regarding comment number 13 and 9 “’Conventions are our friends’
Here, Here, for mediocrity!” Conventions (”a collection of accepted knowledge”), a noun, are not the same thing as conventional (”unimaginative and conformist”), an adjective. It’s what the conventions are applied to that dictates whether the end result is mediocrity.
Tippo (February 5th, 2008, 7:20 pm)
I liked point number 5 and I will have to consider changing one of my sites as a result.
Thanks a lot.
siddharth from rapfodet (February 6th, 2008, 9:49 am)
Like the first point very much.
User will go to some other site for sure if the interface is not user friendly.
Thanks for the great article buddy.
chrissy (February 6th, 2008, 10:07 am)
Hehe, I feel like people at my work should read this list over and over again every morning before they start doing anything! Thanks for gr8 article.
Indian (February 7th, 2008, 11:08 pm)
This was by far the best article smashing magazine added in 2008, anyways, we also need to think the lives of the millions of graphic artists who survive because of the web as a medium. What I feel is the new trend is to make those Graphic artists get out of the web.
CSS started the trend and 3/4th of the people who were doing web sites have gone out of the same because of the big learning curve…
aryan (February 8th, 2008, 2:05 pm)
awesome article. :)
David Jacques-Louis (February 9th, 2008, 1:53 pm)
It’s all here, amazing.
Adriaan Nel (February 11th, 2008, 1:50 am)
Great article, I always try to apply these principles - if only clients always agreed ;)
Detlev (February 11th, 2008, 2:11 am)
“Don’t make users think”… You guys are dumbasses.
Sergei Filippov (February 11th, 2008, 2:49 am)
Excellent article as always. =]. Great help.
pubed (February 11th, 2008, 3:18 am)
Ditto, great tips!
daniel (February 11th, 2008, 3:51 am)
@Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz
still it doesn’t change the fact that in each window resolution you have the right side of the page full white with no content
Acronyms (February 11th, 2008, 3:54 am)
Good intro. Would be great to see more detailed article as well.
Anoop Kumar (February 11th, 2008, 4:10 am)
Really very good article…. going to help me alot…. to make my websites more popular
Thanks
:)
Sam (February 11th, 2008, 5:48 am)
Thanks this will help me!
Lynne Foster (February 11th, 2008, 5:57 am)
I love pointseven but I think it’s also the hardest point to stick to!
Stephane Grenier (February 11th, 2008, 8:04 am)
What I really appreciated is that you used pretty much every technique you talked about in this article. Great examples!
Denise (February 11th, 2008, 8:30 am)
You should consider taking your own advice. At 1024×768 the only thing about this article you see on the page is the headline. Other than that it’s just ads and a serious turn-off. Even at much higher resolutions it just looks awful and you’re lucky to see the first paragraph. You said you are using a liquid layout but if that’s true then you certainly aren’t looking at your site in all browsers.
David Benson (February 11th, 2008, 8:41 am)
Reasonable article, but when I find these articles on these sorts of sites I always ask myself “Why should anyone listen to advice from a designer who plasters his website with gigantic blinking ads?”
Tom (February 11th, 2008, 8:52 am)
Many of these design ideas target first time users and are quite effective with that audience.
However, if you have a site with regular visitors, oversimplifying the design and having too few options wastes peoples’ time and annoys them. For regular visitors, feature-rich interfaces and more content is very important and helpful.
This is one of those cases where you need to consider one’s audience before choosing the design emphasis.
dolugen (February 11th, 2008, 10:38 am)
thanx for this great article. But I actually think you can omit your beginning google ad sometime
pixelninja (February 11th, 2008, 10:58 am)
All in all a good article with lots of good info. However, I take exception to the first sentence, “Usability and the utility, not the visual design, determine the success or failure of a web-site.”
A study done by Gitte Lindgaard of Carleton University shows that Web users form first impressions of web pages in as little as 50 milliseconds (1/20th of a second). Through the “halo effect”, first impressions can color subsequent judgments of perceived credibility, usability, and ultimately influence our purchasing decisions.
I’m not arguing that usability is not important. It is. But so is the visual design of your site. You may have the best usability in the web, but if your site looks like it was designed by a 6th grader using FrontPage, then your credibility is going to be shot from the get-go.
VW (February 11th, 2008, 11:00 am)
well your right about content i dont like your site at all but the content keept me here.
GuM (February 11th, 2008, 11:03 am)
This article features some great advice. However, I do have to agree with some previous posters about the layout of THIS site. My first impression was not the best: I’m finding it very hard to read this article on my 1600 x 1050 monitor: the text-rows are far too long. I much prefer a fixed column width (thats why print media use multiple columns). Of course I could resize the browser, but that surely isn’t very user friendly…?
Rob (February 11th, 2008, 11:06 am)
They should have used a bullet list instead of a number list if items listed have equal value, or are not ordered by importance.
Joe Smith (February 11th, 2008, 12:19 pm)
I appreciate the eye path images. That’s a really interesting usability issue to consider.
~Gildas (February 11th, 2008, 1:04 pm)
What blinking ads?
Ben (February 11th, 2008, 5:50 pm)
This is a joke right?
Dodgyc (February 11th, 2008, 9:56 pm)
Excellent article. Now if only your website could follow most of the Principles. What is that crap cluttering the right hand side of the page?
Even on my Widescreen monitor it’s a mess. I really don’t see the need of a list of the top 50 Popular posts, it’s just clutter.
Thankfully I see no ads around because of some blockers.
Steve (February 11th, 2008, 11:15 pm)
Interesting ideas but, ironically, I found your layout and presentation made me want to read less not more!
Christophe (February 12th, 2008, 1:43 am)
Well Steve, I was thinking the exact same here… :-)
John (February 12th, 2008, 3:30 am)
Kind of useless I would say, on EVERY point you can find NUMEROUS and VERY SUCCESSFUL example for doing exactly the opposite, actually theSupermarket is very very right about what he said. The most absurd think is dividing content and design. First, the content don’t depend from the designer - if the client say “ok, I will put only this and this” you can’t do much in that direction. Second, and most important, please, write it somewhere: web design is about putting CONTENT online. Your content could be a single image, but this is your content. And it’s your job to design the visualization of THAT content instead of saying “crap, I need more content, I’ve read somewhere that content is more important than the design”. Third, the designing the content appearance is the differences between good and mediocre designers. Fourth, there are DIFFERENT type of web sites with DIFFERENT goals. And Fifth - THERE IS NO A BRILLIANT IDEA IN THE HUMAN HISTORY THAT COMES FROM FOLLOWING THE RULES.
In brief - crappy article for mediocre designers
Deb Web Designer (February 12th, 2008, 5:11 am)
Hi
Fantastic post, I really enjoy it, one my friend said to read and I am so happy to read it specially this section -”How do users think?”
Thanks
Deb
Benny (February 12th, 2008, 10:14 am)
A very thoughtful and nicely presented article. Thank you.
Rob @ CSSnewbie (February 12th, 2008, 12:25 pm)
This is a fantastic article! Content like this is what has finally convinced me to subscribe to Smashing Magazine feed after more than a year of occasional readership. Great work!
Scott (February 12th, 2008, 1:45 pm)
What the hell is the product in #3? Lack of questions marks, you must be joking!!
NJ WebGuy (February 12th, 2008, 9:23 pm)
Helpful words, you make it sound easier than it is in practice.
Francois Harris (February 13th, 2008, 9:44 am)
Nice points, all the things we tend to forget over time….
jonathan (February 13th, 2008, 1:44 pm)
Good article I completely agree with the principal that useabilty not visual design makes a website. Combing both is an obvious bonus. For example these Link [www.uniquews.com]follow the same pricipals. great article.
web design cheltenham (February 13th, 2008, 1:48 pm)
Good article although most great designers should design from the aspect of the end user. One of my biggest greivances with web sites are the fact that finding a companies contact details ca