Effective Design & Usability
12/07/2009
Website Easter Eggs - A Little Can Go a Long Way
Categories: Effective Design & Usability
Not everyone has the budget or the cause for an uber creative Flash site like EinsteinBros.com or the visually stunning JonathanYuen.com but that doesn’t mean your site needs to be dull. Don’t be afraid to spice it up and add little surprises for your users. Take your Website one step further by offering users just a little bit more. Perhaps you can add a little personality like the flying “W” that lives in the Webolutions.com header? Yahoo.com has a hidden gem. Click on the exclamation point in the logo and you’ll hear the Yahoo yodel. …
Read The Rest of This Post11/02/2009
Usability Testing: Do it Early and Often for a Great Website
Categories: Effective Design & Usability
Usability testing is imperative if you want to take a good site and make it a great site. It will often reveal usability issues that designers, developers and clients will never discover because they are too close to the project and too familiar with the content. Typically, a usability test involves one user who is shown a site or a wireframe and asked to do something or explain what they are looking at. It’s not too complicated. However, usability testing is often cut from Web design budgets for largely two reasons: It’s too expensive It takes …
Read The Rest of This Post09/16/2009
Don't Make Me Think! (Book Review)
Categories: Effective Design & UsabilitySteve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think was popping up in so many “must read” lists, I couldn’t pass it up. This book outlines Krug’s “common sense approach to Web usability,” and is indeed a “must read.” Don’t Make Me Think does not cater only to Web usability professionals. Anyone who manages a Website will find the material to be easily digestible. You do not need the vocabulary of a seasoned Web professional to get value out of this book. The book’s title is also what Krug refers to as, “Krug’s First L …
Read The Rest of This Post08/19/2009
Is Your Website Usable?
Categories: Effective Design & UsabilityNowadays everybody has a Website. You have to do more than just throw up a site with good content to stand out. You’ve got to start by making your site usable. There is more to Website usability than just ensuring you do not have any broken links. Usability is all about getting your site visitors to the content they are looking for in an easy and intuitive way. You can have the best content in the world but if users have to think too much to move around and find what they want, they will be dissatisfied and go elsewhere. Evaluating Your Site’s Usability Your site is usable if i …
Read The Rest of This Post07/29/2009
Online Design, Evoking Emotions and Influencing Decisions
Categories: Effective Design & UsabilityEvoking Emotions through Effective Design When it comes to our interpretation, "pretty" or "ugly" is determined by many factors. We are not usually aware of them as they influence our sub-conscious reactions. Certain triggers or "aesthetics" in everyday life evoke emotions in us that influence our choices, decisions and reactions. These triggers are not limited to just our vision, but appeal to all of our senses and they happen every minute of every day. To go even further, they can then tap into a personal experience and can influence our emotional responses. I …
Read The Rest of This Post07/15/2009
Foundations are to Houses what Information Architecture is to Websites
Categories: Effective Design & UsabilityInformation architecture (IA) is where it all begins. It is critical to the success of your new Website. Everything done to build your site is heavily influenced by what is discovered and determined in the IA process. Without these fundamentals, your site will be built on shaky ground. Step 1: Define goals and success metrics All Web projects have to start by defining goals. What do you want your new site to do? Sell more products? Generate interest in your services? Establish your company as a leader? How will you measure the success of your site? …
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