Web Site User Interface Design: Principles and Development Process Minder Chen

1. Web Site User Interface Design: Principles and Development Process Minder Chen Minder.chen@csuci.edu  

2. References • Donald Norman, The Psychology of Everyday Things, Basic Books, 1988. • http://www.nngroup.com/ • Jacob Nielsen, Designing Web Usability, New Riders Publishing, Dec. 1999. • http://www.useit.com/ • Steve Drug, Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition, New Riders Press, August 28, 2005. • http://www.sensible.com/chapter.html • Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites, 3rd edition, Yale University Press, Jan. 15, 2009 • http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/index.html • Accessibility standards: • http://www.section508.gov/ • http://www.w3.org/WAI/ • http://www.webaim.org/standards/508/checklist

3. Form vs. Function “…the process of inventing things which display new physical order, organization, form, in response to function… • Notes on the Synthesis of Form, by Christopher Alexander

4. This is the presidential election ballot form from election headquarters in Palm Beach County, Florida November 8, 2000. The confusion over which spot to punch for the Gore/Lieberman ticket has created controversy as there were officially 3,407 votes for Buchanan in Palm Beach County yet there are only 304 registered Reform party voters in that county. (Marc Serota/Reuters)

5. User-Centered Design principles Source: http ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Norman • Use both knowledge in the world and in the head • Simplify the structure of tasks • Make things visible • Get the mappings right • Exploit the powers of constraints-Natural & Artificial • Design for Error • When all else fails, standardize

6. Making Things Visible

7. Get the Mappings Right

8. Design for Errors CTRL-ALT-DELETE

9. Initial Screen Design for Telephone Directory service operator PORT073 MANTEL INFO RELEASE 4.2 USER=JOHNSMIT 08-10-09 11:27:23 --------------------------------------------- C O M P U T E R T E L E P H O N E I N D E X --------------------------------------------- > THE SUBSCRIPER IS > First Name: JONES > Last Name: BROWN > 17 PINE STREET > > NEW YORK > NY 10012 PF1=HELP PF2=DIRECTORY INFORMATION PF5=OTHER SERVICES PF4=VIDEOTEX

10. Usability Problems Classification in the Dialogue • Simple and natural dialogue • Speak the user’s language • Minimize the user’s memory load • Be consistent • Provide feedback • Provide clearly marked exits • Provide shortcuts • Provide good error messages • Error prevention

11. Improved Dialogue Design (CUI) TELEPHONE INDEX ==================== Telephone number (212) 345-6789 has the following subscriber: Jim E. Jones 17 Pine Street New York, NY 10012 Press: RETURN key to be able to enter a new telephone number ESC to leave the Telephone Index PF1 to get Help about how to use this system PF2 to go to the Directory Information system PF4 to go to the general Videotext service PF5 to get a list of Other Services available

12. Improved Dialogue Design (GUI) TELEPHONE INDEX Enter telephone number to retrieve information of its subscriber: (212) 345-6789 Subscriber's Name: Jim E. Jones Street Address: 17 Pine Street City, State, ZIP: New York, NY 10012 Go Search a new telephone number Go to Directory Information System Online Help (F1) Go to the General Videotext Service Exit Go to other services

13. Web Development Life Cycle • Identify goals • Every web site has goals • Work with clients to define them • Multiple goals • Identify target users • User platforms • Technical knowledge of the user • Domain knowledge of the user • Determine task requirements • Design the Web site • Determine the major themes of the web sites • Define navigation maps • Implement the Web site • Evaluate the Web site • Modify and improve the Web site

14. Roles and Responsibilities • Client (Customer) • Funding • Requirements • Constraints • Designer • Overall tone of the web site • Look and Feel • Color • Interactive Media Developer • Build the web pages • User Interface Designer • Navigation • Layout • Easy to use (Usability) • Project manager • Leadership • Coordination • Assign tasks • Manage schedule and budget • Business Manager • Managing client relationships

15. Web Site Design Page design sometimes gets the most attention. After all, with current web browsers, you see only one page at a time. The site itself is never explicitly represented on the screen. But from a usability perspective, site design is more challenging and usually also more important than page design. -- Jacob Nielsen.

16. Web Development Layers • Web management: the usability of a web site is more a function of how it is managed than how good its designers are. • Interaction design • Navigation support • Web page layout • Templates • Search • Content design: The actual writing on the pages • The message is the message

17. Site Elements • Home page • Menu-driven • News-oriented • Path-based • Splash screens or image maps • Graphics and texts • Submenus pages and subsites (alternative home pages for special audiences) • Tables of contents, site indexes, site maps • Product/service/information pages • "What's new" pages • Search features • Contact information • Street address, phone number, fax numbers, maps, travel directions, parking information • User feedback and virtual community pages • Bibliographies and appendixes • FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) pages • Customized server error pages Source: Web Style Guide

18. Adding content to your site • Consider creating, borrowing, buying, or licensing content from other sources. • Producing interesting content is a matter of finding time, thinking creatively, writing coherently, listening to your customers, and, in some cases, asking for their help. • Content categories: • informational content • interactive content • multimedia content • software content.

19. Informational content • Product descriptions • Photos and graphics • FAQs • (Frequently Asked Questions) are a common element of most Web sites. They serve as an easy way to answer questions about your business and how the site works. Good FAQs should dramatically cut down on e-mail. Your FAQs should include information about the products you sell, how to order, what credit cards are accepted, what secure transaction system is used, and where to find specific information on your site. • News sections • Reviews • Guest columns • Newsletters • Databases • Testimonials • Customer-generated articles and reviews

20. Interactive Content • While informational content is a basic offering, interactive content gives customers something to do and contribute to the contents as well as build up a sense of community. • Contests • Polls • Chat Rooms and Message Boards • Discussion forum • Product review • Web boards

21. Multimedia and Software Content • Multimedia Contents • Video: QuickTime and AVI files • Sound: AIFF and WAV files • Virtual reality photography • Software Content: programs that users download from your site. • software demos • custom programs • Shareware

22. Web Site Design Could be more than one level

24. Balanced Menu Structure

25. Web Site Architecture Design Example

26. Navigation Diagram and Page Banner • FrontPage 2003

27. Navigation Bars & Buttons • Button bars are also the most logical place to put links back to your home page, or to other menu pages related to the current page. A button bar can be built with text (like ours at C/AIM, below), or a series of individual button graphics at the top or bottom of the page.

28. Navigation Bars & Buttons Image Map is used. Tab control style is the standard in the industry for navigation bar.

29. Separate content from the interface • Developing content independently from the user interface allows you to develop both more efficiently. If the two are developed interdependently, then every change made in one would have to be immediately considered in the other. Frames, JavaScript, and Java applets all allow you to separate the interface from the content. For example, the text in this guideline is used in both the print-all version and the frames version without modification.

30. Page Layout

31. What the designer Build

32. What another user sees

33. Layout

34. Search Function: Ziprealty.com

35. Show the result

36. Gifts.com: Gift Finder

37. Data Collections from Customers • If you make your customers fill out voluminous forms, you may find your site littered with abandoned shopping carts. • By putting your visitors to work as soon as they step into your cyber shop – making them fill out personal information – you run the risk of running them out faster than they came in. If you make it hard to buy something, they won't. • Don't treat your site like an exclusive club or some kind of secret-handshake society • Conclusion: • Only collect the data that are necessary to offer the service to the customer

38. Simple UI Evaluation Criteria • Trust • Comfort • Familiarity • Clarity • Reliability • Appeal: Flashy, Colorful • Function vs. Form

39. Usability • Intuitive interaction • Natural task flow • Following user's expectation • Satisfying user's goal Source: Phil Green, AMS

40. Web Site Evaluation • Is the purpose of the site clear? • Does the site clearly address a particular audience? • Is the site useful and relevant to its audience? • Is the site interesting and engaging? • Does the site enable users to accomplish all the tasks they need or want to accomplish? • Can these tasks be accomplished easily? • Is the information organized in a way that users will expect and understand? • Is the most important information easiest to find? • Is textual information clear, grammatically correct, and easy to read? • Do you have a clear idea of what the site contains? • Do you always know where you are, and how to get where you want to go? • Is the presentation attractive? • Do pages load quickly enough?