Designing Easy-to-use Websites - A Hands-on Approach to Structuring Successful Websites

A Hands-on Approach to Structuring Successful Websites

To give you an idea of the quality of work involved, here's a sample usability list from Chapter 7: Critical design features for common Web tasks. This chapter summarizes current usability research and recommendations into suggested Web page features, all footnoted (my comments in [brackets]):

Increase user satisfaction of site performance by providing:

visual response to user-initiated action < 1 second [alink?]
enough of the page load for the user to continue working in < 8.5 sec [optimized, simplified HTML]
increased perceived performance, e.g. offer text links first, then graphics [or use CSS positioning to display content first]
warnings beforehand of possible long delays, i.e. keep the user in control;

Increase the speed of on-screen reading by using:

black characters on a white background (or strong negative contrast)
mixed vs. single case and left aligned
type size (10-12pt with a well-designed screen font) [use relative font-sizes instead: em or percentage for easy resizing]
line length 40-60 characters or 10-12 words per line
white spaced with margins
a sans serif typeface
non-justified text
short to medium-length paragraphs with first sentence indented

Increase browsability by using:

eye-catching conclusion within the first 30-40 words, followed by the detail [i.e., newspaper inverted pyramid style]
highlighted keywords
meaning subheadings and bulleted lists
one idea per paragraph;

Increase readability by making the writing style:

short, to the point, and half the word count of conventional writing
factual, correct and objective, rather than using hype and promotional spin
professional, credible, using high-quality graphics, good writing backed up by outbound hypertext links;

Increase the usability of navigating and linking by:

designing the site structure to map to the user's core tasks
regularly running a dead-link checker to reduce the risk of broken links
using default link properties as defined by the browser/user
providing information about a link, what it is, where it goes, will there be a performance hit?
avoiding deep hierarchies and dead-end streets
using cross-referencing for related information internally and externally
keeping pages short and not relying on the use of the scroll bar for any important information;

Increase the user's ability to find and return to your site by:

registering the site with all the major search engines
defining the keywords that will return the page from within a search engine
marketing the URL, online and through traditional channels
actively seeking opportunities for other companies to include a link to your site
supporting bookmarking [no frames, can make bookmarking automatic in IE]
having a page title (and window title) that is meaningful when placed in a bookmark file [think out of context]
having a URL that can be easily remembered, typed and guessed by a user.

Highly recommended.

Designing Easy-to-use Websites
By Vanessa Donnelly
Addison-Wesley, $39.95
ISBN: 0-201-67468-8