UI Design for the WWW

1. UI Design for the WWW Creating Effective Sites and Pages

2. Why Web Site Design Matters • Tests of time to complete shopping tasks at several major on-line stores - number of clicks varied from 8 to 50; high abandonment rate on poor sites • Jakob Nielsen review of comparative tests on web sites - average 68% difference in task completion times • Nielsen finds 135% improvement from redesign effort • see http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20040119.html

3. Developing a Site 1. Identify objectives 2. Generate content - typically a topics list 3. Logically organize content - clusters 4. Provide structure to clusters 5. Transform content to pages with graphic design 6. Test and iterate So what else is new????

4. Page/Site Goals • Convey information/access employees, shareholders, customers colleagues, public • Sell products • Advertise/market service • Recruit • Announce, survey • Nurture communities • Convey image or impression • Meet people • Raise money/donations • Entertain an audience • Promote myself • Teach people about a topic • Get famous • Tell a story • Search: promote ease and speed • Browse: without a goal, attractiveness trumps efficiency

5. Generate a Topics List Raw brainstorming of just anything CCI: awards unique points table of contents index contact information map buildings academic units graduates alumni research classes people faculty students administrators equipment directions programs degrees mission undergraduates Put each on index card or post-it note

6. Organize Content Group items into categories People Faculty Students Undergraduates Graduates Staff Academics Courses Undergraduate Graduate Degrees ... Put notecards into piles

7. Departments Computer Science SIS Institutes Charlotte Visualization Center … Research Labs Bioinformatics … Information Programs News Events Undergraduate Admissions Graduate Admissions Contacts Dean’s List Bioinformatics Intitiative Faculty/Staff Faculty Listing Staff Listing Research Areas Events Event Listing Support COIT Tech Support Search Computer Science Undergraduate Program Master’s Program Ph.D. Program Graduate Certificate Software and Info. Systems B.A. SIS Master’s in IT Ph.D. in IT Certificate Programs Research Projects Current Index on CCI Home Page

8. CCI Homepage

9. Web SiteUsability Problems • What problems do YOU have on the web?… • … • … • …

10. Text Content • Attention spans are short on the web • users want instant gratification, • and reading is 25% slower on screen than on paper • So… • People tend to skim web pages, just read headers, highlights, selected paragraphs • Tune your writing style to this reality • J. Nielsen column on writing for WWW • http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html • www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html

11. Inverse Pyramid Writing This is the short blurb describing the article This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text To see how well this thing w This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text To see how well this thing works This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text Does this work at all? I don’t know. I am in love with XXX To see how well this thing works This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text Does this work at all? I don’t know. This is some nonsensical text This is some the dog is barking nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text Does this work at all? I don’t know. What is love? What is the good life? What is, and is not? That which is, is. The world is all that exists. Nothing unreal exists, metaphysics law #1. This is some the the the the nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text Does this work at all? I don’t know. This is Is there a god? Are we a quantum accident? Will we ever know? Are there questions that should never be asked? What is the nature of goodness? Why are we so mean to each other? How can we be so cruel to one another? This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text To see how well this thing works This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text To see how well this thing works This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical What is good in life, he asks? That is a question we may never have an answer to. is some nonsensical text This is some nonsensical text This is some Most important info Title Short Blurbs Summaries Overviews Teasers . . . Less important info Background Information Supporting Details Long Quotes Inverse Pyramid Writing Style James Landy, U Washington

12. Inverted Pyramid • Start with a good concise title • Reflect the content • Continue with the most important points • Use hypertext to split-up information • People often won’t scroll or read • Use less text • 50% less than you would offline • Use a simple writing style • Simple sentences -- no hype or advertising • Use EMBEDDED LINKS to help visitors find more information • Use bullets and numbered lists • Supports skimming James Landy, U Washington

13. Graphic Design • All the graphic design considerations apply here, too • Consistency • Visual structure reinforces logical structure • Color • Typography

14. www.amazon.com Navigation • Often most critical, and weakest part • Give user understanding of information space structure • Table of Contents (Site Map) • Search, Index, Breadcrumbs • Navigation bar - tabs or similar www.washingtonpost.com

16. Structure • Connectivity - distance between page pairs, averaged over all pairs • Branching factor - how many out-links • Long scrollable pages vs linked shorter pages • Number of links (clicks) to get to a goal page - major cause of users abandoning a site • Search can lead directory to any page • Always include link to home page

17. Home Page • Most important page at your site • Critical for image • Entices viewer to look at more • Give viewer a good idea of what can be found at the site • Make sure vital content is “above the fold” • Place real content on home page • How much graphics do you use? • If links are in images, have parallel text labels near page bottom

18. Home Page Design Has Evolved • From graphics-rich with few links – mostly to top-level pages of major subsections • To link-rich pages that give access to real content in one click, plus have some content

19. Home Page Evolution Georgia Tech College of Computing Old home page Newer home page Latesthome page Ancient home page

20. Example evolution

21. Most Violated Homepage Guidelines • Emphasize what your site offers of value • Use a liquid layout • Use color to distinguish visited and unvisited links • Use graphics to show real content • Include a tag line to summarize what the company does • Make it easy to access anything recently featured on your homepage • Include short site description in the window title • Don’t use a heading to label search area, use search button to right of box • With stock quotes, give percentage of change • Don’t include active link to homepage on the homepage http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20031110.html

22. Structure of Pages - Templates • Layout consistency important • Graphics, banners, grid, breadcrumbs, navigation aids, search box • Design just once, use for all pages • Design tools support this - Dreamweaver etc

23. Evaluating Templates - “Greeking” • Have people guess what the areas are - • See: www.useit.com/alertbox/980517.html

24. Links • Success of link depends on • How well user can predict where link will lead • How well user can differentiate one link from other nearby ones • Useful content at other end of link

25. Link Wording • Beware the famous “here” Click here to learn about my BMW Z3 vs. I drive fast in my BMW Z3 • When a link will take someone a good distance, use word “jump” For more on iguanas, jump to Fred’s iguana page. • Say explicitly where link is • Check out the tax calculator by Money Magazine.

26. Top Ten Web Design Mistakes • Bad Search • PDF Files for Online Reading • Not Changing Color of Visited Links • Non-Scannable Text • Fixed Font Size • Page Titles with low search engine visibility • Anything that looks like an ad • Violating design conventions • Opening new browser windows • Not answering user’s questions • There are other lists for 2005 and others Jacob Nielson http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html

27. Bad Design Bugaboos All capitals text Scrolling sideways Teeny, tiny text size, especially in italics Dead links Telling the user how to set the browser Poor contrast in text-to-background color Large typeface (one without impact and contrast) Animations that don’t stop Things that look like buttons but aren’t “Under construction” notices Neglecting ALT tags for images Not denoting image sizes Do-nothing home page Changing color for the heck of it Lack of mail to/feedback throughout site Sites requiring advanced browser or plug in

28. Chapter 1 – Content Bloopers 1. Home page identity crisis. Home page doesn’t clearly identify organization or its purpose. 2. Confusing classifications. Content categories seem arbitrary or nonsensical. 3. Unhelpful descriptions. Content descriptions do not support choosing among items. 4. Conflicting content. Information in different parts of site disagrees. 5. Outdated content. Content on site is out-of-date, but not clearly marked as archival. 6. Missing or useless content. Information users need to accomplish goals is missing. 7. Unfinished content. Blatantly incomplete areas of site. Chapter 2 – Task-Support Bloopers 8. Redundant requests. Asking users for the same data repeatedly. 9. Requiring unneeded data. Making users provide non-essential information. 10. Pointless choice. Offering or requiring meaningless choices. 11. Omitting important options. Choice excludes options some users need. 12. Clueless back-end. Back-end lacks "common sense" data needed to support user tasks. 13. Dead-end path: Now you tell me! Allowing users to go down a path towards a goal before telling them it is unavailable. 14. Agonizing task-flow. Accomplishing tasks requires many unnecessary, distracting steps. Jeff Johnson’s Web Bloopers

29. Chapter 3 – Navigation Bloopers 15. Site reflects organization chart. Site structure reflects organization’s structure or history. 16. Numerous navigation schemes. Many ways to navigate, but no clear guidance. 17. Deceptive duplicate links. Making users think: "Do those go to the same place?". 18. Not linking directly. Specific-looking links that go to generic pages or home pages. 19. Lost in space: Current page not indicated. Page doesn’t clearly show where user is. 20. The circle game: Active link to here. Page has active link to itself. 21. Missing links: It’s BACK or nothing. Page provides no navigation links. Chapter 4 – Form Bloopers 22. Making people type. Using a text field for a choice setting. 23. Intolerant data fields. Text field is too picky about how data must be typed. 24. No defaults. Controls and form fields with no default value. 25. Faulty defaults. Controls and form fields with the wrong default value. 26. Compulsory clicking: No default text input focus. Users can’t just start typing. 27. Lame label placement. Labels mis-aligned with, or too far from, data fields. 28. Checkboxes or radiobuttons? Checkboxes misused as radiobuttons, or vice-versa. 29. Looks editable but isn’t. Using standard data-input controls for display-only data. 30. Mysterious controls. Operation of controls is unclear due to poor labeling, poor layout, or uniqueness of controls. Jeff Johnson’s Web Bloopers

30. Chapter 5 – Search Bloopers 31. Baffling search controls. Search options require knowledge of computer or industry-insider concepts. 32. Dueling search controls. Competing search boxes on page, with no guidance. 33. Hits look alike. List of found items cannot be easily distinguished by scanning. 34. Duplicate hits. List of found items contains duplicates. 35. Search myopia: Missing relevant items. Items that should be found are not. 36. Needle in a haystack: Piles of irrelevant hits. Many items don’t match search criteria. 37. Hits sorted uselessly. Sort-order of found items doesn’t support user tasks. 38. Crazy search behavior. Modifying search criteria yields unexpected results. 39. Search-terms not shown. Not showing what search terms produced these results. 40. Number of hits not revealed. Not showing how many items were found. Chapter 6 – Text & Writing Bloopers 41. Too much text. Overly-verbose instructions, messages, or link-labels. 42. Speaking Geek. Computer jargon in error messages, commands, or instructions. 43. Calling site visitors "user" . Using the computer jargon term "user" on a website. 44. Insider jargon. Using the vocabulary of industry experts, rather than that of users. 45. Variable vocabulary: Different words for the same thing. Inconsistent terms. 46. Inconsistent style. Text on site does not follow consistent style rules. 47. Typos and grammos: Sloppy writing. Failing to check and fix text before going live. Jeff Johnson’s Web Bloopers

31. Chapter 7 – Link Appearance Bloopers 48. Links don’t look like links. Links not marked well enough, so users miss them. 49. Non-links look like links. Non-link text is underlined; or non-link graphics look clickable. 50. Bizarre buttons: Click target smaller than it seems. Entire boxed area surrounding link label looks like part of button, but only label accepts clicks. 51. Wrapped links: How many? Multi-line text links. 52. "Click here": Burying links in text. Important navigation links embedded in prose. 53. Been there, done that? Can’t tell. Traversed links not clearly marked. Chapter 8 – Graphic Design & Layout Bloopers 54. Tiny text. Text typeface too small for many users to read. 55. Camouflaged text. Text contrasts poorly with background. 56. Centering everything. Centering prose text, bullet items, controls, or data fields. 57. Unobtrusive error messages. Error messages easy to miss due to poor placement. 58. Shades of beige: color differences too subtle. Relying on small color differences to convey important meaning. 59. Dead or Alive? Active buttons look inactive. Buttons appear "grayed out" but aren’t. 60. Terrible tabs. Navigation tabs don’t look and act enough like real tabs. Jeff Johnson’s Web Bloopers

32. Sources • Designing Web Usability, J. Nielsen, New Riders, 2000. • The Non-Designer’s Web Book, R. Williams and J. Tollett, Peachpit Press, 1998. • Web Style Guide, P. Lynch and S. Horton, Yale Univ. Press, 1999. • Creating Killer Web Sites, 2nd edition, D. Siegel, Hayden Books, 1997. • Web Site Usability: A Designer’s Guide, User Interface Engineering, North Andover, MA, 1997. • Web by Design, The Complete Guide, M. Holzschlag, Sybex, 1998. • Web Concept & Design, C. Waters, New Riders, 1996. • Hot Wired Style, Principles for Building Smart Web Sites, J. Veen, Wired Books, 1997. • The Web Design Wow! Book, J. Davis and S. Merritt, Peachpit Press, 1998. • How to Set Up and Maintain a Web Site, L. Stein, Addison Wesley 1997.

33. Sources • Jakob Nielsen’s home page, hotlist, recommended books • www.useit.com/jakob/ www.useit.com/hotlist/ • www.useit.com/books/ • Web Review Design tips • webreview.com/wr/pub/ • Web Bloopers (Jeff Johnson) • http://www.web-bloopers.com/index.php • Web Techniques magazine • www.webtechniques.com • Web design fundamentals • www.pantos.org/atw/basics.html • User Interface Engineering • www.uie.com

34. Good/Bad Sites Good Creating Killer Web Sites www.killersites.com Project Cool site of the day www.projectcool.com Bad Web pages that suck http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/