Usability tips for web designers

Usability Tips for Web Designers

 Include a Tagline

A tagline is a statement or a motto that represents a company’s, or in our case a website’s, philosophy and mission. It should be the most obvious element on a website’s front page and it should clearly describe the website in one phrase.

Implement Site Search

As with taglines, site search is a very important element on a website. When users are looking for something they typically look for a text field where they can enter their search term.

Don’t Use Extensive Graphics

Abusive use of design elements and graphics are always bad for a website, they just mislead the site’s visitors. Only design to improve the web page not just to decorate it. From a usability point of view, less is always more.

Use Site maps

Site maps are a relatively new website feature that improves web page navigation and also search engine optimization (SEO). Site maps in essence are a structural representation of a website’s pages and architecture.

Don’t Break the Workflow

By workflow we mean every operation that a user is doing on a website .Filling out a form, registering on a website, browsing categories, archives, etc. Don’t break these workflows, let the user cancel any operation.

 Create Easily Scannable Web Pages

Easy to read web pages plays an important role in maintaining visitors’ loyalty, keeping them on your site and reading your content. Usability tests show that the majority of users don’t read web pages, they scan them, looking for titles, bold, emphasized text or lists.

Don’t Design Misleading UI Controls

By user interface (UI) controls we mean web page elements, components and widgets that a user can interact with (e.g. a button, drop-down list). Don’t design graphic elements that looks like a button, but is not. We often see text that is underlined and looks like links, but are not clickable.

Make sure that your UI controls are consistent.

Give Meaningful Feedback

Meaningful feedback is essential for a website. This is the communication channel between the site and the users, with the help of feedback we let the users know what’s going on the site

Do Not Overuse JavaScript

With the advent of Javascript and the AJAX technique, web designers and developers can create responsive, transparent websites, but as with all new technologies there is a cost. In our case the cost is browser inconsistency. Not every user has an up-to-date web browser. They also might not have Javascript enabled by default.

Avoid CAPTCHAs

CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. Even the name sounds complex.

Presented BY Atees Infomedia