I was recently involved in a discussion regarding website usability with a few fellow web designers. It was during this conversation that I thought about the word "designer" in our titles. Most would say a web designers job is to make a website look good, and the siteboxpro team and myself would not argue with that - but there is more to it.
My REAL job is to ensure that our clients get a great website AND their clients get a great web experience. A great web experience is one in which the user is able to find information, navigate the site, and get what they expect. Plain and simple, the site should be easy to use. I've put together a very short list of things that help make any (your) website more user-friendly:
- Click here! - if this phrase or hyperlink appears on your site, remove it. Instead, let the description be the hyperlink - example: "Click here to register" or better put "Register".
- Going Home - your logo (which should appear at the top of your page) should be clickable and return the user to the homepage of your site.
- PDFs and hyperlinks - open PDFs in a new window. All other hyperlinks should be in the same (parent) window - unless you are sending the user to a different website entirely.
- No underlining - underlined text should be reserved for hyperlinks - use other typographical elements such as bold or italics to emphasise.
- What's the status? - hyperlinks should have 3 states - not visited, visited and active - make sure you are using colors and decoration to let your visitors know where they have been and even more importantly where they haven't!
Simple things go a long way. It is the part of every web design to ensure a website is functional, easy to use and - of course - looks good.
