With all this talk about revolutionary Web applications, Web 2.0 and transitional Web, I am always baffled to find how many new sites, as good as they are looking, are running into classic design mistakes.
Take Mindmeister, for an example. Or Gifttagging or Apple. Technorati looks great, but the user experience is inconsistent. Wis.dm is not there yet, but they have improved greatly after I had consulted them a couple of months ago.
All these sites do something wrong, while Flickr, Twitter, Amazon and ZDNet Blogs are doing it right.
What am I talking about? The user experience. Namely, what is active and what not. Or in old-school terms, the links.
Click here
Links are much more these days than they used to be. The original HTML specification saw links as a core action element of hypertext markup language. Links are only one gear wheel in the whole set of Web functionality, but they are at the heart of everything. Without links, there is no action, no behavior, no “going somewhere” no “coming back”, no tabs, no context, no visitors.
If links are such a relevant element of the Web, crucial for good Web design, one would assume that anyone who creates a website (let alone a web application, which creates a lot more interaction), would have a decent look at links. But apparently that is not the case. Simply put, a lot of web designers and developers are sloppy about this factor.
The mantra
Let me be clear about this:
Designing a website and failing to incorporate interaction properly is like building a home and forgetting to put windows in it. Seriously, it is that bad.
You may use that when you talk to your designers, developers, project managers and clients. Just remember it. Use it as a mantra, stick it on your screen, put it on the backside of your office restroom door. Just think of it when you create a website.
But what does that mean actually? Incorporating interaction properly, sure; you know what that means, right? It is indeed quite simple. Which is probably one of the reasons why most people fail doing it right.
How bad is it?
What if you don’t do this right? Is it really that bad? Yes it is. But you won’t find out for a long time. Or maybe you find out through excessive user testing, but you are unlikely to find those flaws yourself. Simply because when you build something, you click on links and buttons for a thousand times. And you simply forget that little fact, that if you wouldn’t know where to click, you wouldn’t click there.
Links, buttons and anything that triggers any sort of action is what “incorporating interaction” is all about. There are hypertext links leading to a different spot on the site. There are links leading away from the site. There are links that open form masks to send emails or leave comments. There are buttons to confirm, send or post. There are buttons or links that trigger JavaScripts. If you make a list of everything that calls for action on a single web page, you might end up with a very long list. But luckily, there is only one thing you have to remember: Which are my action triggers?
Here is a step by step guide. It’s not all you need, as it doesn’t releave you from creating a concept that is clear about what your website or Web app is about. But it’s a great check list for your prototypes.
- Use one color for links, and one color only. For all your links, no exception.
- If you don’t want to use one link color only, at least use underlines as a significant design element to differentiate links from regular text.
- Make a difference between what is a link that leads somewhere, and what is a button that triggers a form action.
- Use only one kind of a button and use a consistent graphical language that makes apparent which are the buttons on your site.
- Choose link- or button colors that signalize activity.
- Use a clear and simple icon language that works self explanatory.
- Use arrows to indicate direction (you can go somewhere) and not only as a neat bullet point.
- Stick with your design choices throughout the site, and use them as a design pattern.
Trust me, as simple it may sound, sticking with this isn’t that easy. Throughout the design process you are always tempted to make something look just slightly different. You want to change the link color. You want to make it look less obtrusive perhaps, by dimming the colors a little bit. Or just to use a link instad of a button. Just because it looks neater, or you think it “works better”. It might look better, but it’s questionable if it actually works better for the users of your website.
User comes from “to use”
You always have to remember that your site visitors are users, who want to do something with your website. The main point of surfing websites is to do something with them. To get information, shop, go somewhere, return, or contribute with your own content. Today’s Web surfers are a lot less passive than they used to be a couple of years ago. The whole reason why there is a Web 2.0 movement in the first place is its users. It simply wouldn’t exist without them.
Sticking with consistent design patterns and providing clear indicators for interaction may not be important for contributing your design to CSS Mania. It may not even be noticed by your client, or even by most of your site visitors. And that is the best sign for good design, because that means it simply works.
Technorati Tags: Experience
