Key Messages
How To Create A Usable And Popular Website: Hints And Tips For Creating An Effective Online Presence
Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited is an invaluable guide to creating and testing a website that users will love to explore.
It provides insight into the hints and hacks that can make a website useable yet popular.
It helps you understand why doing what other web designers have done isn’t necessarily bad, if it puts the focus back on user experience.
This book delves deep into the simple analogy of comparing a website to a department store.
If there’s no map, you get lost and leave with little success- which is exactly what happens when your website isn’t designed correctly.
But by understanding how to plan and design your site correctly from the beginning and learning how to go out of your way to listen to customer feedback, you can create something special!
Plus- investing in pizza funds (and some cash) will also help you in your journey!
We Rely On Satisficing Instead Of Rational Decision-Making When We Surf The Web
Rather than reading through a user manual to learn how a device works, most people would rather figure things out on their own.
Even if they don’t understand the mechanics of a technology gadget, they can still navigate websites reasonably well without any help.
Take an example of somebody searching for an entire website address instead of using their browser’s URL bar; this is due to a decision-making strategy called ‘satisficing’.
With this approach, people make decisions quickly and settle with the first available solution – even in higher-pressure situations.
This strategy is also applied when we go online; as it is easier and more fun to take the risk, click on something that captures our attention and then see what happens.
Afterall, if something unexpected happens then we have the “back” button at our disposal!
If we get what we want (and 95% of the time this will be the case), it gives us an underlying sense of satisfaction – which makes us feel smart.
Creating An Attention-Grabbing Website: Tips For Formatting And Navigating Content Effectively
If you have a website, you want to make sure your visitors can quickly find and absorb the message you’re trying to communicate.
In order to make this easier, there are certain elements that should be used when designing your website.
Short paragraphs, headlines, highlighted keywords, and visual hierarchies will all help make sure users can scan for the information they need.
This is especially important given that eye-tracking studies show how quickly we decide where to look and what content will be ignored – like ads or other irrelevant pieces of information.
Think about a print newspaper: it’s obvious which parts are most important, so readers know what areas to focus on right away.
You want your website to do the same thing.
Make it clear what matters most and present this information in an easy-to-find way so users can get the info they’re looking for without too many clicks.
Otherwise, they may become overwhelmed or frustrated with searching through multiple pages of content.
So don’t hide important key messages or details behind too many clicks – that’s not a great user experience!
Instead, structure your website in such a way that makes it functional yet easy to navigate; this will ultimately contribute towards increased engagement on your page as well as better visitor satisfaction overall.
How To Make A Website Easier To Navigate With 4 Simple Items
Navigation is at the core of each website, so it’s crucial to make sure it’s as clear, simple, and consistent as possible.
If a visitor can’t find their way around the website or doesn’t understand how it’s organized, they won’t stay long.
One way to ensure navigation is easy for visitors is to add a “sections” bar at the top of every page that clearly outlines what the site contains.
Additionally, there should be four additional navigation components present on every page: a search bar, a “You are here” indicator, a link to your home page from your logo and also a utilities section which includes things like log in spaces and FAQ sections.
Having these navigational components makes it much easier for visitors to navigate your website quickly and confidently – thereby increasing their chances of making purchases or learning more about your company through the content provided.
Embracing Conventions Is Key To Crafting An Effective User Experience
When it comes to website design, conventions play an important role in helping visitors find their way around with ease.
It’s all about tapping into what your visitors already know and giving them cues so that navigating your site is as effortless as possible.
Take driving a car in London for example; if the convention were reversed and you had to drive on the right, you’d likely be very confused.
Similarly, when people visit a website they’re expecting certain conventions to still apply.
For instance, they expect to see words horizontally along the top of the page representing main sections of the site.
Web designers are often tempted by the idea of being innovative with their designs but it’s important to remember that these conventions have been developed over time because they represent the best practices available.
Take tab dividers for example – this is something users are already familiar with from other sites and traditional filing systems so people instinctively understand how to use them when they see them on a site.
It’s ok to be creative when conjuring up a design but make sure it still maintains clarity and ease of use – unless there simply isn’t an adequate existing convention for you which requires you to come up with something new.
Just remember that at the end of the day user experience should always take precedence above anything else, so make sure whatever decisions you make keep your audience in mind!
Creating An Engaging Homepage: Make Your First Impression Count
When it comes to designing a great website, home pages are among the most important elements.
Not only do you want them to be attractive and eye-catching, but you also want people to get an accurate first impression of your site from their initial visit.
This is because studies have shown that this first impression largely sticks in the minds of visitors, even after they spend more time on your site later.
Therefore, when crafting a home page for your website, it is essential to prioritize accuracy and clarity over catering to every single person’s opinion.
If too many stakeholder requests lead to a cluttered and complicated page, then viewers will become overwhelmed and confused right away as they try to make sense of what they’re seeing.
One way of incorporating an accurate first impression while also clearly conveying what your site is about is through the use of taglines or short sentences placed next to your logo.
Taglines can be both lively and personal yet still convey the value you offer with your website – so go ahead and craft one that communicates exactly what your business or brand is all about!
The Best Way To Tell If Your Website Is User-Friendly? Testing
When it comes to evaluating your website, don’t rely on friends or co-workers as they have subjective opinions.
After all, we all like different things when it comes to web design and may assume that others think the same way we do.
Instead of asking for feedback from people, it is better to conduct tests to see how users interact with your website.
This is the only way to evaluate whether your website is working the way you intended and objectively see what isn’t working.
Testing also shows you just how different users are which can be extremely valuable insight when creating a website.
Ultimately, testing is necessary in order to make sure that your website meets its goals for usability and user experience; don’t forget: Test, test and test again!
Testing Websites Effectively: How To Gather Helpful User Input And Transform Your Website
When testing your site, it’s important to watch people navigate it in order to identify any areas where people are having difficulties understanding your features.
You should first select a group of testers, offering compensation or a special treat to ensure participation.
It also doesn’t matter what background the subjects come from – anyone can do the job.
Your facilitator should then ask the users to click around and talk about what they’re seeing while taking notes.
Don’t influence their behavior – ask questions like “What are you thinking?” or “What would you do if I weren’t here?”
Make sure that everyone tests out every feature, such as logging in, creating a profile or returning an item; and even if someone fails at a task, allow her to keep clicking until she becomes too frustrated or there is nothing else to learn from the session.
Finally, get managers and stakeholders involved when running the testing as well.
Seeing someone fail to use your site could transform how they view usability – most likely causing them to ask, “Why didn’t we do this earlier?”
The Benefits Of Conducting Early Web Development Testing
Testing isn’t as daunting as you might think!
You don’t need to dedicate lots of time or money to getting useful insights.
You don’t need hundreds of people for the test, nor do you need everyone involved to take notes and record the results.
All that’s really needed is to test three normal web users, and have a few observers write down the top three problems they encounter.
You may find that there are more issues than you can address but you can keep it simple by focusing on only those that you can fix.
That way, you spend your resources on something constructive and not on things that a user can easily overcome with minimal discomfort.
The best thing about testing early is that it makes making changes easier when working on beta sites.
Not only that, once users become familiar with a site with all the changes already implemented, they don’t have to learn how to use all over again which saves time explaining why changes were made in the first place.
In conclusion, it’s worth testing your website early on because it provides helpful data at more cost-effective rate and takes only a little bit of effort from your end.
Doing so will provide great ROI in helping make decisions throughout the development process without having any surprises later down the road!
Adapting Websites For Mobile Browsing: Enhance User Experience With Design And Functionality
If you’re catering to mobile users, one of the most important things to note is that your website needs to be optimized for a small screen and should load quickly.
This means prioritizing in-demand features so that they are easily found by the user and loading quickly despite any poor network conditions.
Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited by Steve Krug suggests implementing zoomability features as well so that returning visitors don’t need to necessarily be shown an entire page just to figure out how to navigate a site.
It’s also important to provide a link to the complete website in order for people who may want more detailed information or access to all of a site’s features.
Overall, mobile computing is rapidly becoming the norm, so it’s crucial that mobile sites are properly designed and optimized for speed and accessibility if they are going to be successful.
Wrap Up
Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited provides great advice on how to create an excellent user experience on your website.
By focusing on usability, you can ensure that visitors to your site can find the information that they need quickly and easily.
Through simple testing of each stage of the development process, you can ensure that your website is delivering a great experience for all users.
Moreover, don’t be afraid to take initiative and conduct tests even if it doesn’t wow your boss in the first instance.
You can show how invaluable it is through capturing data and videoing small scale tests, then send this key evidence over so that your boss can appreciate how much better the experience is for customers with small changes and tweaks.
Ultimately, Don’t Make Me Think captures true usefulness of usability testing at every level.
