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WEB BATTLES BETWEEN USABILITY & DESIGN
By Dyanna S. Culp, Temos
Among Web designers battle lines have been drawn. One side stands firmly behind clean, fast loading, informative sites and the other behind Web sites as showcases for art and multimedia.
Some of us take the middle ground, sacrificing a little speed for a more aesthetic site design. Meanwhile, online companies are presented with Web format choices as varied as text only and total Flash. Even conservative medical sites offer examples of both extremes. While surveying the battle scene, it helps to keep in mind a quote from Dr. Jakob Nielsen, one of the top Web analysis gurus of the past decade, "The medium is not the message; the message is the message."
Web Analysis Gurus
On the fast side we have Dr. Jakob Nielsen. For over a decade he has emphasized content as the most important criteria of Web design. Dr. Nielsen sees the Web as "the information highway," and is not a Flash kind of guy. An interview with Dr. Nielsen covers many of his pet peeves on site design, such as poor site navigation and slow-loading home pages. According to Nielsen, home pages limited to 20-30 KB are among the fastest loading sites online. After the debut of his book, Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity, many reviewers claimed it belonged on every designer's shelf and could make the Web an easier to navigate, less stressful experience for all.
On the graphic design side, Curt Cloninger, author of "Fresh Styles for Web Designers," views the Web as a new form of media where content should be presented in a more artistic format. A Cloninger interview quote says it best: "He's (Jakob Nielsen) coming at the Web from a GUI background, so he sees the Web as a big piece of database software that needs a front end. To me, the Web is best understood as a communications medium. Yes, the Web runs on software, but so does digital video these days. Still, any graphic designer who dismisses Nielsen in toto is probably just reacting to his dismissing them in toto."…
Speed, speed, speed…
We can only hope that both sides recognize that the goal of most companies online is to attract and keep site visitors. Fast loading text-based sites gain an immediate advantage over the slow competition. We are impatient; we do not like to wait.
The vast online majority still uses a dial-up 56 K.
According to a report from Accenture, the global market for wireless Internet-capable devices will grow 630 percent, by 2005.
All of those wireless users have painfully slow connection speeds (AT&T's most expensive plan can only reach speeds of 19.2 kilobits per second).
They wait for your site to load, then you must remember the three-click rule: if they can't find what they want in three clicks, they're gone. You have a few brief seconds to capture and keep their attention.
Have you ever found a tantalizing site review, waited and waited for it to load, and then given up and clicked the mouse to go elsewhere? I've had this happen even with a T-1 connection. If you must have a flash intro page, then provide flash and non-flash options. Check Web stats to see how many visitors choose the flash option. Studies show that when given the opportunity 75 percent of users skip the Flash intros. If your site is graphics heavy let visitors enter fast, then tell them what they're waiting for when they click on that digital art portfolio sample. Remember the reason people are visiting a site- the content. The majority are just not interested in viewing a multimedia presentation.
Client Design Demands
Some clients (usually those that spend a lot of time online) insist upfront on fast -loading design. Others want the latest, hottest graphics. Ask yourself, and your client, to honestly evaluate the online goals of their company. Which graphics add to the content message and which ones get in the way? Explain the benefits and drawbacks of possible graphics, while trying to steer the client to the solution that best serves their business needs. Whatever their final decision, remember, the client is always right.
Content, Content, Content!
To keep them coming back, your site content must be relevant to the specific needs of your users, be well written and easy to navigate. Utilizing the skills of a professional writer (experienced in Web content and Internet marketing!) is worth every penny spent. The Web designer must then create an attractive format that subliminally guides the reader to that important content. Too often, one finds online information presented in traditional print form. What works for newspaper, book, and magazine print publications does not work online. The mind and eyes work differently when focused on a computer screen. Over the last few years, evidence has accumulated supporting this difference and pin-pointing how online surfers read a Web page.
How Readers Really Scan Web Pages
Approximately 79 percent of online readers scan Web pages, gathering pieces of information before deciding whether or not to read the entire text. Even more relevant to page design is the pattern the eyes follow when scanning a page. A study by the Stanford & the Poynter Institute yielded some controversial results:
Text briefs or captions get eye fixations first, not photos or graphics.
Graphics may not be viewed until returning to the home page after reading an article.
Banner ads do not attract the reader's eyes.
Graphics, other than banners, get a look 22 percent of the time
A site's first opportunity to engage a visitor is through text.
Tips for Web Site Text
Use spaces to emphasize text.
Break up text with bold headings.
Use paragraphs; remember rules from high school English composition.
Bold or italicize important points & key phrases.
Use bullet and numbered lists.
Get to the point; don't ramble.
Approximately 36 million Web sites now compete for 513.41 million online global users. 180.68 million of those users are in the US and Canada. Content, not graphic design, is the determining factor for most of those millions returning to a site. Beware of intensive graphic use. The focus should be on the content, with the graphics subtly supporting the experience. It's like the woman in a beautiful dress, the goal is to have people say, "There goes a beautiful woman," and not "There goes a beautiful dress."
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