Google Labs just rolled out a browser size tool to help you see how your website is seen by people with different screen sizes (more literally, browser winder sizes). This tool can tell you if an important elements of you page is showing up “above the fold” or if it remains hidden unless users scroll. [...]
You can drive all the traffic in the world to your website, but it’s a waste the visitors don’t convert. Form design is very often a significant contributor to poor conversion rates. While Key Principles and Specific Recommendations that follow are generally written for forms that solicit contact information from potential customers, they can also [...]
Adobe is buying Omniture, a leading provider of web analytics and analysis provider.What does this mean for online marketers and our clients? This struck me as an odd combination until I started digging a little further into recent history of these companies and the direction of application development. Adobe makes software such as Acrobat, Dreamweaver, [...]
We were just revisiting an old client’s site, and we were struck by how narrow the design looks, having been designed to fit on 800 pixel screen widths. (My MacBook Pro’s “squat” 1440×900 screen definitely exaggerates this effect.) It used to be considered a best practice to design websites for 800×600 pixel displays. This width [...]
The golden rule for good web design is simply: Don’t annoy users. They will leave. A lot of big, beautiful, and expensive web sites commit cardinal sins that result in higher bounce rates and lower sales. Most annoying behaviors are easy to avoid. These sins include: Splash pages Sound or music when the page loads [...]
I just had the pleasure of attending a presentation by usability luminary Steve Krug in which he identified what he thinks are the two key rules of web design for usability: Show where you are within the site Provide good, prominent titles You were probably expecting something more earth shattering? So was I, but as [...]
Too often I come across websites that have what appears to the designer/owner to be a slick, beautiful, or otherwise superior design that presents challenges to users. All too often usability comes a distant 2nd or 3rd to other design considerations. Website usability is a critical determinant of how effectively you convert visitors in customers. [...]
AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript + XML) is typically unfriendly to search engines, and thus may thwart SEO efforts. AJAX is a set of techniques that allow websites to act more like client-side applications by fetching data and processing it locally based upon user actions. For instance, a web-based spreadsheet may allow the user to sort data [...]
Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox recently included a post about the usability benefits of breadcrumbs. We have long counseled clients to use them when their site design and organization allow for the same reasons that Jakob advocates their use. We add one more reason: SEO. One of the important aspects of site optimization is creating abundant, keyword-rich [...]
What is the purpose of your website’s home page? Is it to brand, sell a product, talk about the company, direct people to the right information, or entertain visitors? Should it be colorful or stark? Simple or busy? Focused or comprehensive? All of the other questions and concerns are acadmic if website visitors leave, which [...]
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