Archive for the ‘Usability’ Category

Recommendation: Don’t Make Me Think!

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Although Steve Krug’s book Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability has been around for years, its not one all website owners are aware of. This is an outstanding book that doesn’t require technical know-how.

Who is this book for? EVERYONE involved in the creation of a website. That includes you website owners, project managers, and any of the other non-techies and non-artists who will be involved on the project. This information can save you a lot of headache and learning things the hard way. It will also save you arguing with your experienced web designer who already knows the principles this book covers. (more…)

Is Your Home Page Helping Or Hurting, Part 2

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

Last week I addressed the home page from a written content standpoint. Today I’ll discuss your home page in terms of look and feel and imagery.

When surfing the web, think about the best websites you’ve seen and the worst.

How cluttered were the worst? How busy were the pages? How confusing were they? How long did they take to load? How much animation was there?

Now think about the ones you liked. They probably had information that was easy to find, were uncluttered, loaded quickly, were pleasing to the eye and had little to no animation.

10 Tips for Making Your Home Page Better

(more…)

Is Your Home Page Helping Or Hurting? Part 1

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

For those of us in the industry, it has been understood for over a decade that web surfers don’t read, they scan.

This is news to many website owners.

Think about it: when was the last time you read every word on every web page you came across? Especially home pages? Never?

Same for the rest of us.

This is important to remember when writing home page text.

A few tips and links for effective home page text.

(more…)