Elise Kendall
|
Saturday, 29 November 2008
If you're looking at your website every day, you already know how to get around
it, and may be the worst person to assess the usability from the point of view
of the public.
I want to mention two usability issues which I am surprised to still come
across.
Imagine that when users enter your store they need to pass through a door. Then
another door. Then another door. Then they need to operate a secret series of
switches to take an elevator to a basement... All very well for Maxwell Smart,
but not the way you want your website to work, is it?
Splash/Entry Pages
Is there a good reason to have a splash page? Really? If there is one, please
comment and let me know because I can't see any benefit to adding an extra
click to the user experience and reducing your search engine visibility. Tony
Bartlett posted about this same issue a year ago (I encourage you to
go back and read if you didn't see it the first
time around) and in the last 12 months I'm pleased to notice that I'm seeing
less splash pages and more content: but I'm sad to report that it is still an
issue. Still have a splash page on your site? Remove it. Really.
Links & Underlining
I recently saw a logo where the main text in the logo was underlined. It looked
very strange and daggy to me and I realised that as it was underlined I
expected it to be a link. I'm sure you did too; underlined text which
doesn't go anywhere is bewildering and frustrating. Similarly users still
expect links to be underlined: Okay so underlining isn't 'pretty', depending on
your target market some compromise may be available. If you are absolutely
against having underlined links then they absolutely must be a different colour
to your body text! (preferably blue!) and underline and/or change colour on
hover.
How many clicks?
Remember that you're probably already an expert on your own website, so you
already know where to find what you're looking for! In some cases, several
clicks will be appropriate - I know I've spent hours "Wiki-hopping" on
Wikipedia. If you have a large amount of information, then sorting it into
categories will help your users navigate - if you only have a small number of
products or pages then adding extra clicks will aid frustration, rather than
clarity.
