Smashing Magazine has amazing articles on web development and doing business online. I learn from this site every time I visit. Here's a bit about them: Founded in September 2006, Smashing Magazine delivers useful and innovative information to Web designers and developers. Their aim is to inform their readers about the latest trends and techniques in Web development. They try to convince you not with the quantity but with the quality of the information they present.
They posted a 10 Useful Usability Findings and Guidelines article a few days ago. It has some very helpful and revealing tips. Time to update some of my sites again and implement these tips.
1. Form Labels Work Best Above The Field- this is all about logic, not layout. I have a client with extensive forms. They may not be pretty, but people don't miss a single field because the field label is right above the field. They simply have to type, tab, type tab without hunting for what is next. Sometimes clients get caught up in the layout and prettiness of the form, but forget a user doesn't want to spend time hunting for the next item to fill in; they want to get through any form as quickly as possible.
2. Users Focus On Faces - I loved this one. I'm always recommending that my clients include a lot of faces and people on their sites to keep the human element alive and well. This point was studied with a heat study. It showed that people would focus on the cute picture of the baby looking at them, but the heat ended there. But, if you turn the babies face to look at something on the page, the heat study showed that the baby had the most heat and then, nearly equal, was the item the baby was looking at on the page. It's almost like we are engaging the person in the photo and listening to them. We want to know what they are finding so very interesting. I'll have to review a few of my sites to see if I can "turn the baby's head" to draw attention to the content.
3. Quality Of Design Is An Indicator Of Credibility - Who's your audience? Make sure your site design has them wanting to trust you immediately. Visitors want to know you have your act together - no typos, clean links and quality content. Make sure your design is incorporating current trends and technologies. Nothing will date you, your message and product quicker than a design that takes people down memory lane to a time before blogging, before Facebook and LinkedIn. Five years with the same design is a long time online. Very few designs can stand the test of time without embracing new features and trends.
4. Most Users Do Not Scroll - They will scroll, but between other studies and the feedback in this article, you still need to engage them enough "above the fold" to encourage them to stay the extra few seconds to scroll down. If they are already engaged reading an article, they'll scroll. They'd prefer to scroll rather than click and click and click.
5. Blue Is The Best Color For Links - We're just used to blue. I'm not crazy about the "visited purple," but the standard link blue is easy to find on a page and we all know what it means because who would ever use that color blue as a decorative or text font color.
6. The Ideal Search Box Is 27-Characters Wide - Did you know most search boxes are only 18 characters? Queries are more than 18 characters and the extra 9 make it easier to review your query before hitting "search" or "go." Give your search fields a bit of space.
7. White Space Improves Comprehension - It's OK not to fill in all of the space on your page - even above the fold. Give it some breathing room. Embrace the open space to allow your visitors to distinguish between blocks of content and topics.
8. Effective User Testing Doesn’t Have To Be Extensive - You know who your problem viewers usually are, don't you? They are the ones who refuse to upgrade from IE6, have the limited color monitor, etc. You can probably discover most of the problems with your site with just a few key people testing. Opening up your testing to hundreds of people will give you the same results. If there's a problem, even with a small sampling, it needs to be addressed and the importance of their experience weighed.
9. Informative Product Pages Help You Stand Out - That said, don't overwhelm your audience by cramming so much information on the stats page they glaze over. Go back to item 7 and combine the two ideas. People want to have as much information or more than the sales person they may have to deal with. If it is strictly an online decision, they would like to be able to research as much as possible on their own without having to engage "live chat" or pick up the phone.
10. Most Users Are Blind To Advertising - people are so anti-ad that they will avoid clicking, looking reading any graphic that has that "ad" look. This is a pickle if you are trying to generate ad dollars, have your site look clean by standardizing your ads. The solution - Ads that look like content links. Filter them into your key content. You'll get more clicks for your advertisers.
You can read the bonus items and full story on Smashing Magazine here. This above version has their ten points, but my commentary based on their article, feedback, and other studies I've read. It also includes personal experience building sites for over 13 years for a variety of clients ranging from cities, large professional associations, property management firms, medical professionals, real estate professionals, trade shows and retail clients.
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