Page design von John Ashenhurst (stark gekürzt)
 
 


Put usability first; practice simplicity



1) Aim for page loads of less than five to six seconds (...) 

2) Keep your page download sizes to 32KB or less (...)

3) Make your page sizes consistent (...)  

4) If you use graphics, make them small (...) 

5) Be aware of screen real estate. (...). The page is for your visitor's benefit. The visitor wants information and isn't interested in your artwork. Keep your links visible at the top of the screen.

6) Respect the variety of browsers (and versions), hardware platforms, and bandwidth your visitors live with (...).

7) Avoid using frames. It's tempting to provide scrollable regions on your pages but ultimately frames confuse visitors, search engines, and the bookmarking process.

8) Apply Occum's razor to your Web pages. If the page works without an item, leave it off. (Occum suggested that all things being equal, the simplest hypothesis wins.)

(...)

Content design

1) Be succinct. Write your page copy then reduce the number of words by 50%. (...) 

2) Create visual clarity. Use headlines, bolded words (but not underlined), bulleted lists, tables, and other visual structures to make it easy for the visitor to quickly understand the key points of a page.

3) Expose agency personality. You don't need to write in a dry, academic, or gray business-speak manner. On the other hand, don't be too cute.

4) Edit your copy. Spell check. Grammar check. Fact check. Have multiple people proof your copy before posting it. (...) 

5) Use plain language that your audience can understand. (...) 

6) Make it easy for your visitors to get to what they care about. Avoid trying to include too many subjects on one page. Provide a conceptual and linking structure so that visitors can get to the content they're seeking without wading through volumes of what is to them irrelevant text.

7) Write meaningful page titles. (...)

8) Foster legibility. Use sans serif fonts (...) 

9) Focus on scanability. Visitors scan sites more than they read them. Scan each of your pages. Is it quickly obvious what they cover?

10) Use multi-media sparingly. (...)

Site design

1) All pages in your site should clearly and consistently indicate whose site it is and what it's for. (...) 

2) The home page should include a directory of the site's most important sections. (...) 

3) About half of all Web users are search-dominant and find their way through Web sites primarily by doing searches. Therefore every page on your Web site should provide a site search capability.

(...) 

a. Where am I? - so provide your site name, general section, and page name on each page

b. Where have I been? - ideally, show the path they took to get there

c. Where can I go? - pages below this one but also how to get back to the home page and related pages on this same level

7) Design your site around a structure or skeleton that makes sense to your visitors and their concerns. (...) 

8) Make use of Web conventions. Unlike software in Windows, where Microsoft has established de facto standards, Web conventions develop, evolve and disappear in a free-flowing marketplace of ideas. Users have become conditioned to some common patterns of site design and navigation. Make use of the most common and best. (...) 

The author

John Ashenhurst is president of Sound Internet Strategy, publisher of "Sounding Line," a monthly newsletter that focuses on insurance and the Internet. Ashenhurst has created and written about insurance technology since 1975. For more information, visit the "Sounding Line" Web site (www.soundingline.com).

Quelle: http://www.roughnotes.com/rnmag/may01/05p32.htm