miGoitiinon Sense Approach to Web U sability DON’ Rae ME aie — INN ll fH) IH) A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability Ml WN) | (| i‘st ae Me hi A Cem ese rt o We Ui pa a Sees erate eet net ng ees alan Eero ieee te oepoa Spee a a Senenumbore tent Sadek Maer oypao7 aay of npr gd Noe yt a ed St ‘Bie 9 ik ta ne tent or sre me as er aps Sits bs Mastin atin thar oni in weno + Ani re lige aa dr see ah. Beeman an repre tv vr sae tcp = ‘Reihe by respects ay person a entity with 18 any eas or Camas asin infaenen vertsned in this took. lll Dei a coe Alia D.C Roger Bk omaing aon a ate ier plank end by Ron Tg Conon myc aegsance ete lst ay ra | as ew i ing Teather aa vant mete orca bk onic i mri mete rte ste of rnc of i sd my so ry ah wl vie ets ch tera irorewono canter areas By Roger Black Read me first Trt earn ond lanes Don't make me thi rg Ft Law of Uaity How we really use the Web Scanning sting. and wading rough Billboard Design 101 Deng ps fran. ling ‘Animal, vegetable, or mineral? Omit Bpedkess words The of tring fr he Web Street signs and Breadcrumbs 10 3 40 “4 50 HAPTER 8 carer 9 counter 10 ‘The fist step in recovery is 96 admitting thatthe Home page is beyond your control Dosing the Home pae “The Farmer and the Cowman 30 ‘Should Be Friend Why mot ok dg am arguments bot wy ea vase of tin ont hr ho Usability testing on 10 cents a day 338 eng ting gle youdo veg ft Usability testing: The movie 154 ion od ar ting ‘On not throwing th 4 baby out withthe dishes Ine ets Recommended reading 182 ‘Acknowledgments, 186 Index 192 taForeword > THE USABILITY EXPERT lows him to see every Web si S fee looking st for the i tin Ini this freshness, combined with his bility to accumulate practical experience from the way seal people try to use the Intornet tht makes this book so valuable Steve and ist worked together while | was a creative consultant to @ Home Network in 1997. He would look ver the shoulders ofthe designers there sn make sure tha they didn fl in love with visual ideas that would confuse the ‘customers. [asked him to join our company (which later became part of Girclecom) as an online usability shrink to help our designers and cients bud ng lear navigation into tei sites from the begins Steve's approach to evaluating Web usability is not based on herding thousands of victims into usability labs and sttaching electrodes to their heads to rack ery though né movement, He is more concerned with observing bow 1! People under nora circumstances, find (or don't find) their way aroun site These obscrtions are best made in offices and homes, with rex Wed = and real conditions one ono focus 0 Steve docs not have alot of time for So Dot Mate Me Thin! isnot about exhaustive stasis and thousands of hours of linia trials, and tons of survey research argon. Rater itcontins sharp. empirical obseriations, combined with straightforward solutions tothe ‘ost fundamental Internet design problems. ‘As Steve and have worked tether ( iftime in Internet years). ve Tamed that 8 percent ofthe mistakes you will make in information architecture can be caught if you bring ina great usability exper from the ‘beginning. Ifyou want to spend more money. panel of experts might save you another 10 percent. The rest you just have to ix when the real experts the customers, get involved, ‘With this book, the pric of this kind of advice has suddenly gone way down. ‘Steve Krug’ expertic shard o come by. Hut now, much oft sin your Inands. Youve saved a lot of money already and if you can absorb what he has to say here, you wil sve much more, Rocre Brack Ocrossr 20001s this tip relly necesary? YX J vo taiat ity ahch tsa ting hea peat Putng onset of o> Ws uae, Pave rest job, > People (ies) send me proposed pe deren forth new Web tee bg or the URL ofthe existing site that tyre desig mepageeniene > Took atthe designs or use the ite and igure out wheter theyre easy enh owe {an “expect usltyrvow). Sometimes I poy ther peopl to nyt se the stewie atch (usbltytsting) > Lita report describing he Drobloms hat found that are Tikely w cause users grief (Pussy issuer) and sy gesting posible slutions. 61eco ion it's ale af aloe to people who work ith welt professes aoe r can lp you aad some of the endless, ciclo It's not rocket surgery™ fr iy really jun! means aking sire that comeing wos wel hata with geting hopes farted Re Like otf ommon sense, though, snot reese vious nt afr ring conten, gett workon interesting projects with 2 at fm omens pine ot pep Sa in Sd oe ea E ‘No question: fou an ford hie someone like me. Bu you ca hope er ash cnt oop this book il able you te dot youre in your copious spre ine. ce pols. get Say what Ink, and peopl ssl seit Ad get pl well lieve me would nigh jeopardize his way of i ut he reality is there ave so many Web ses in need of he ho do what | do-—that baring a total elapse ofthe Internet Tide dance of ay rang out of work for years ‘Suddenly alot of pope with ite or o previous experience have bren 1 sie fr bgt ees that may determine the future oftheir ‘he looking for people oll hem that they're doing i sgh Graphic designers and developers find themselves responsible ord ntertaes—thng ke interaction design (what happens et wie dis) and information architec how everything sore ti ore why my ceoning bine acu time a few wees ‘And most people dai have the budget to hice 2 usability cons eee ATR adaned Common See ima ace ure my cree mo. ‘ore alone have one sound al the ie. taYes, it's a thin book > Fie sha sore ily totaly be se fr the people who “signers th developers ste paces the agers. the projec maa Fraktiog pele nd the people wo sign he eka rt maul peopl wh ae tall tech > You dt eed knew certing swith any fie there lot yu aud lam aout say But nes youve a usability pote onal here' ii rach wo een "rer ol wy rnp igh he: foe hing rage ag: rely Be veal adhe pase Stayin Seale were Dr Was Se aid at ithe rd wed i. ‘api ft man in, Helnes ex he arf hae eso > ieee as i fn what dace iit me Yi tha ae pron sn fo | ‘hema isl nl ke pen of eee oo 101°" Find hate met vale contin make each projec bays come pigs ew byway pices ind hk hee’ aot releverage or mont pope derstanding these eal than in anotbe Indy st ot ypectc dc and dents ve ed dwn he few sings thin everbody inven bili Web se shold know Not present at time of photo i a boing for them, te at few things ou wont 1 aout the ight oy to design Web ses. ben a this fra ong ght know th hee one “ight ay ods Web ses, proce and he el answer o moet the questions hat seapieik te "depends But do think hat there at few seal tng pps bays hep thay nmin, and those ae what Fn > Discussion of busines model fis anything that internet vols ace Ike bases: you ms one all you have to do wat ite come along, no expert when comes to making probaly be bun vil and acter one ‘money on the Web, ander were, whatever | hd os Wo pas by the te you rea > Predions fr the fits f the Web, Your guess ia good 8 mine, The iy thing sure fs ht) most ofthe predictions hese ate almost eral won, a) Stns hat wl tur oto be impetant i ume at serpin, eventhough in hindsight they seem precy abou + Badomouthing of port designed ses. fou eno people poking fan a ites wth mi fw yout reading the wrong book. Designing bung nd ‘naling eo Web it teary. Hk gl: hand of ways et ‘he ball nthe ole, «milion ways not, Anyone who gts even tal ih a my admit. "jd adi wyoming ht rare nig ena he——— nnd tht theses use as exam: ean hin you can lea rere svt in fa ado > mpl fm ind fs : Sab hpi im ec STE nagar nip, ow deh Mos ofthe examples inthe book Who's on first? the i to aad constant referent Dutalsoto yt ge hroghoat Tiss pry because ofthe edu it pesence aa Web user while you're ‘Web design hts on. Ths hs ed > oP fame, the author. Sometimes i's me the wsabilty professional lens.) and sometimes i’ te speaking ava Web user (FT eat Seat atom, bat i alnays me > Vii you, the reader—comeone who designs, builds, publ bile ora Web site > "Wer (How we ely se the Web?) all Web users, which nc 1 may set these rules cccasionaly but hopefully stil lear wo i aig boat " Is this trip really necessary? rf Non ar ble as af es a ee str, a a beter ance hat youl se ther iin hoe this bok wl lp you bul abet ste and—ifyou can ship few desig giments—raybe even get ome aie fr diner once whileMichal why are the drapes open? Wha’ the most enor hing should do wane ake ste ny We sie sey ows ple sot" Nothing imprint seal ever be moe sity> or Speae eclapemeat Bere Be cree “Don’t make me th ve boon tel pple fr yeas tht hs say sy Web ges {ok at the mote canine come sth oereding pinile—the ultimate ere something works or doesns ina Wey design Ifyou lave ivone usability rule, meth the one ‘means that fra humanly posible, when [lok ata Web pope shold ne selfevident, Osis Seexplnatry. shuld e bl to get t—hat itis and how ous it—witout experingbs (ayus think Things that make — Ss ieee bana pitt ie ee conga sre ids that X07 ws head oF their W yeac quia hing cick thera hey og re" and there st always treet Note that hee i newheze be Forinsance, Jobs may sound to undignified for XYZ. Corpor he Ike no Ybor because of some complicated intel p has whats aeays bee led in ther company newsleter hte ado should aly be skewed further in te direc ton we caret think estan mars over people's had viously clickable. As a wser, [should never a thought tombe things ate cckable—or no ree ce asiEEUU ner empl 02 oa out Twat 1 88 most BOOKSTORE SITES = bck ais, efor Xch for 8 20a, & sep. erating rte Arties bode, yam Cn Cangas pe (hat sare ay an 5 A> sre nates? | FY octane | ha hater’ ‘apes co hs Sect” Grane most of his il hat nes lai ton ser ppareniitt™ een" han, dee evn mentan the Author Te Reymond ot what you pe and do whatever ea he met em ce J have to think abot ow | wat to search? And even wore, think abut how these’ earch engine want neo pane the question, a though iter ome ory ol guatdinga bridge? (You fort © sy May 2) cod Ut dozens of ther things ht ves ote shoul spend the te thinking abou he: > Whee am 1? > Whee should begin? © Where id hey pot —_? > What are the moat important hing om his pe? > Wy id hey al ha ut the ast hing you nd i note ches ad to your sak of Web design heel The thing yu can do so just understand he ase HF you do, youl begin to notice all theunten an’t make everything self-evid, on eae orcch page tobe elev 0 ajay es oa er knoe what it and how to use i Fokog Site Bs peesai ees etna Serta comahing very comple 70 0 vee For er “ Se ancemticnn er en eee fn tr elrcbosen 220s the aso op Te trams oferty called text shoul all work gether a ‘earinstantanecus recognition, tyoucnt males page selFevien. you a es nee 0 make sere, o importan’ Why is tl ‘xy enough, not forthe reason you usally bear cited: ontheinteret, ie compton aha on honey. saityoafrsiats usr Tad scneere eb “hes seins, bot youd be surprised at how long sme ene unter probs wie ene we rn ‘cfc is, your ite may nt hve ben ht easy oid in he it ce ad “sors my not kao aerate, The prospect staring vet aba ‘anf thee’ lo the "ve malted tn mls for thi us ales. 20 may a. fins lie longer phenomenon, Sees, whe ay hat the competion ny es sting? Holing yg seledent is ike having gpd igh 2 eft aes verison beter Usinga se tat eet make stink about wnipornt thangs cs eff whereas puzzling over things that dn’ mater ous es to sap our energy ‘hu 5 youl ase inthe next chapter when th msn eeagon why earn mat ping io sper fares time looking at he ages Wo “ana remit Web pages ate going to be fective, they ave to wok moet of thet magica lane, And the best way todo ti io crete pages hat are ee - evident oat east selbeplanaton enema time ‘we cxamine how me alas the We, ake me think that st people ae design than we ket thinking xidiag which link to dl what r me (ifwere can sme ofthe tex, and click onthe fis ink thst scr the thing tee looking for. There a that they doit ven ook at. Were thinking “gent iterate” or tas reality much dose to billboard going by WHAT WE DESIGN FOR... THEGrea aaa asset everyone wsesthe Wed he amg rc ete ink hat cur owe horror ser oF ure 4: 7 We do ages. We scan them. fh xy fw wth documented fats about Web seis that pepe pen very lite ine redingmost Webpages! Instead, we sc or shniin Tekin fr words or presen that catch our eye. “Te xetion of couse piges that contain documents like news ses. mj ‘or pad: dessptions, But even then ifthe documents longe han ace Tera wtih opin iter ase ern ero Wy do we san? * nanan 2 etl Webster oact ike sharks: They have bp" they de Wes dt ave the me to read any methane Were god ait Wee been scanning aewspapers marines, nd books al nthe pats mee reese isd we Ew that wok ; ke Gary Lars car Sd carom abot he fer berween matey Ss ht ty Feri et a ee Gog ate lenge ar owner pres hersstns ng shox oh arog. ut fom the dogs on of ew al es yi “blah blah GINGER blah blah blah blah GINC Sorta blah” ae What we when eek a eb ae ape cw Wer alt icons What ce Pa WHAT DESIGNERS BUILD... WHAT Ad ofcourse (the wagerWe don’ "t make opt timal ct ces. We satish,,- he people and ve sen at esta dozen of them mye) ‘entice URL he Yahoo search bo every ne he Wank 19 i! he it athe fit ie, Gt ery hey wa go hee, ‘ever tines day yu a them about Becomes cleat ht seme ink that Yao ithe Lene, a tht isthe way you nee? ner oF LE 3: My fv We don't figure out how things work. ee We muddle through. i he things that becomes obvious 28 S007 4 Goan Uabily eng neo! r ating eb es sar oF Hows applncs—e ea, Z Sac a ng te ie tout we ANGIE HO hy a wa @-0 Vaso! @-@— | arse, Teer wrong beaded eas about how they we SoS Seen Few people ke te se SESE | ae pete Fact with any sort oftxhnaogy. ef people ake the tne o ead, ._| Sereage! ae ee ge ahed and made rough. aking UP CUT Own pa fogs Sal sets tout what wee doing and why i wor = = : Ao ing hough i no iid te egies, ven echnical say srs Wafen eid me ofthe seme a tbe ed ies have spin gpe intr ndestaing of how things rk ee The Prine he Paper where the ral prince Bacvers hat the fake pauper has ben te he Great Seal of England asa mteracker fais absence, (i makes perfetsense—10 ‘i he seas just his great ig ean chunk ofmetl) Se mrp even Bl Ges has some it of technalogy in his ie that ewes by ming trough) Ad thefts we get things done tat way. {ye sen ots of peopl use sofeare and Web ses efecvely in ways that ae nothing like hat the designers intended.048 we se wecan Ween. Henge Inthe rea scheme of hing rks, We stick tot. Once we find sont ot we seldom look fo one designers and develo ysee 2 user click on something cony Instance, when the user igre sacl, mat saying something ke, “i ck here on ‘Cheap Stu bers shat he's looking for evexnaly ky whether to be happy or aa.now | Whos sgn | Ths re You tt have | Driven ver fr | Burma, Shave } Break pages up into lest defined areas > re Create a clear visual hieral Kone ofthe best ways to make ape arto rasp ina hurry so make sue that Hie opeeranc of he ngs onthe pagal ofthe visual cues—deaty and ely poresy te rani betmeen the things on the page: which things ae ute, and which thing at par of ther sings. In other words eh pope soak clear visual hierarchy. ages wth clear iu hierarchy hve tre ats: “The mor important some things the more prominent {tie For instance, he montcomnren 3 9 Thing that ae reed Weal ein hecho nd on perce dy, tt hg ghee ly that the only ine wee even vaguly nee Rate ic on incon ne oe tat tangs area by Garitdo then the il ie or snc of then face ta ke oe eee ‘godin ye wok by epoch ge ew ring Shean doping ten ea ong conti ay tat vee anys ose 2 simi alte, chy—ifereing loosely poring heal ey iron fr stance—we fede o he ac ower pce ann ie defined area. 2 age fr eveaing words and phrases nd then yng t fom out ov sea cf ‘wht’ important and how things are organize. lot ar work ‘ut when a page dosnt have acer visa hers “Tings ate “esta visually to show whats pat of what For instance, section heading (Computer Books") wool peat above the tleof 3 ticular book. visually ee S245 ecomassing the whole i 4 ee eal eve ence Posie tapi een Op recep bt e pe omic em m Sane Patsng page wit vial hierarchy catia eile ae hate cn slighty Hoed—eres leaner ding oa ngs hat et the eto, And the te in of for stances ike readings nr wal pc se Cars consrcd sees 8 Uap the cleat dsr te book, «he eereppeteg ‘There's nahing ne ot il eerie Prey meee pei inne, testes ile wll) ‘pa pngy tong ps ald ect ieae a tengo oe veel pare wc od Tape erage | tcrrtok pedi hdl: yi get ee ts ‘Wise unary mes he hig hed ‘ean, it till ows us momestany hbtt eset este ings hes, the widest column, anda prominent postion on the pag. fd forces us to think when we Portotthe tang toss seon shoulda Have to,Conventions are your friends “Thee aro important things Know aboot Web corentions sos point ou out, without ee being taught weal earned fo read Seen eesppe: Not he wor but the commentions sul consenson only Become ‘We leamed fr intance tats phrase in vey rge pe is usually headline that ‘conmenton if they werk. Well- Nismo he ory underesth and tht text underneath picture i ethers applied cmmenions make teaser (Spomn hat ls oe wat ia plc of iit in very small 1ype—a phy for user to go fom sitet site Ge tht lle me whe ok the pcre {Re karl tat owing the various conventions of page aout snd formating Coser an lero an 3 newspaper and ind the stories we Were interested et side of the pge even is semetimesacompenied ys eos sense ev > Designer are oem recat o ake advantage of the. Face th te post sta somebody ghia. teen works wel enough, af sing convention, ther res tempat or desis ive he vite it and vent enough people have seen iin enough poss ‘ee nsted gly Beas hey fel (ot incre tye en itd spanaion This aon proces takes tine, bet thappens prety |) 22 ew ad ieee nthe sae ol ting (Neto = he nce ke eveting de Fo inane, enough people se aoe seven of using a metaphorical shopping crt on ecommerce Busnes, ome eb ages ie me the same feeling {get when I'm wading Sheol rom Polishers Clsting House ying to Figure out which scl | fave to att the form to enter witout accidentally subscribing to ‘Whe eerthng onthe pages elamoving for my attention the effet ean be tig erst msn pe ont nia seg pnged ee ee Fo instance, MSNBC's mem are x perl and sick navigation doc that et ‘wets get toa ston the ste guy Bu the ines betwee its ads loot ois. Gaying the lines would make the mena mach earn san, ‘Users have varying tolerances fr complesty and distractions; ome people have 90 problem wit bay pages nel background noise, but many do. When eve ‘signing Webpages its probly a god idea to asume ht eethings ual1 doesnt matter how many mes [have to lick, as lng as cach lice i mindless, unambiguous choice ‘ofr ver the years debating how mary times you can expect users to ck to get wht they want without geting eo frst Some sites even have design rules stating that should never take more than speed Imumnbo of clicks (usually three. four, ove) to gett any page inthe se the fice of, “number of clicks to gt anyere” seems ikea usefal ertevia. Bt etme ve come to think that wht really counts snot the numberof dicks it ne to get to what I want although there aro mits), but ater how hard each ek y—the amount of thought required, andthe amount of uncetainy about ther Ym making the right choice etl | think ts safe to sy that usors dont mind lot of elicks as longa cach is painless and they have continued confidence that they on the right ack. the rule of thurab might be something ike “three mindless, unambiguous sual one cic that requires thought [assic First question in the word game Twenty Questions —‘Animal, vegetable, Finer)? a wonderful example of a mindless choice. As lng a you cept remise that anything thas nota plant or an animal—incuding things as oie tas a et ee ee ee ree eee eee NG course there are exceptions. Im going to have to dil dae through the same parts of Sea ee es isee as plans, rcs and encyclopedias, for instance—fills under *inral- atall answer the question correct? ‘ofoensey most ces on the Web arent as lear instance. if goto Symante's Vins pines page becuse {want © update my cov of Noro Anis, Tn ced wi 80 cs vet make before {can contin ‘one fhe csices, Language, is elatvely pines. takes only 2 tiny ito thou ‘sto concnde thst “English, US" means “United States English,” as oppose a agish, UR" 11 betel on he pulldown menu, hough | ‘oho nay stun madi though. since there ‘So Eagsh UK on thei = ho pry belie pled hy Exptl Eagle)? (ee wonder ye oe ‘Te other choice, Produc bit ick, however ‘The roberta ieee to “NAV for Windows 95/98." Now = 95/98” Now, I'm sure that i ‘ity soon who werk t Symantec tnt NAV and “Norton Ain” ‘ethe same, But it equresat east a sal leap of ith on ny part ‘And een though know for cra that im using Windows 98, there's at leat the ‘so gueston ny mind wher dats exc the same “Wado 998° Mabe here someting eed "Wi poe a Aster example: When fm tying to buy 2 product or service t use in ny home (fice, I oflen encounter sites that sk me to make dice Ike ‘fice ‘Which one is me? Ifs the sme way fel when 'm standing in rt of tao ma tones abled Stamped Malland Metered Mail witha busines rep card my and. What do thy kt ie—stmped or metered? And wat happens op iti the wrong bow? “The pont we face ccs all the me on the Web and ming he hoes Trintles fone ofthe mi things tht make 2st easy to useGet rid of haf the word om ach page, then get id of half of what's ef. een pam for the same reason that a drawing ¢ have no ‘essary hines and a machine no unnecessary parts! ‘When ook at most Web pages im struck bythe are jst aking up space, becuse no one i tint or gp ha os nde a oon ih iene ae they actually a My Thin taw probably sounds ecesive because ts of te words is acl a realistic goa find the words on most Web pages without ving hal of whats eft is just > 1 reduces the nose level ofthe page. ‘makes the useful content mor > I makes the pages shorter allowing us 2 glance without seroling,ows Rrseeens woxns i ee Happy talk must die tee tries pecnc va eer Weall know bap ‘Peoatelyecessry, cut them bck the bre minimum ie when we sei its the intredactory text thats supposed a ‘lus how great its, oto tell us what We're about io ee Forexample, when I lek on Ste Suny she Vere te ee falf instructions read te somethings happy tal, here's one sures est foe ysl ou eading you ean actually ear tiny voice in the boc of youre saying, “Blas la bah Blah Ba.” -t of happy ale the kindof veeongratutory promotional weting that you find in bah weiten brochures, Unlike good promotional copy, Ices no wsefl “nation a fase ot saying how great we are, as opposed to delineating ‘shat mas us great, ‘Arboagh happy ik sometimes found on ome pages—usually in paragraphs "hs san mh he words “Welcome tits favored habitat isthe font pages of ‘he sections ase (section fon). Since these pages ate often usta table of contents with oral conten of he own, there's a emptation to fill hem with ‘apr uk. Unforuatly, the effets sia back publisher fk obligated to ad 2 pragaph othe ble of contents page sying, “This book contains many Interesting tapes about __" apd. We hope you enjoy them” "apy ta sie smal alk—content fe, asc just away to be sociable. But ‘ost Web uses dort have ime for srl thy wan getight othe bee ‘oo car—and shoukt—elinimte 3s much happy tla pers Instructions must die ‘The other major soure of nedless words is wie es os eece tara theinsrucons re won. the es of wer prety .———~” omy Remesece wonos ‘And now for something completely different ‘he nt tee ttt py ah {thes fra few chap ve been ying conse some ging pinch tessa irlineed Ue ads ep ERshw nc are god to have is maind when You baling 3 Wed ste Sat dra tt Sma a Now wt heading nt wo chaps that okt how these pnpes ap > the wo bigest and mort important challenges in Web desig navigation an Name pe certs keene et Mya ng vat ope Theyre een apes sk metsdohe i a ee Sa ‘amen nears | | ea tanos Ae Spuacum | Sieeeecee aa = ie Spenser tat guiticeierrersce atuuseintes taboos aaa Renita | Teena ee Secret dtm can ne a , 227% ph oem cmc Instead. please cont Cust Seniesa ae (as) otBn UCL m a mallAnd you may find yourself, ina beautiful house, witha beautifl wife ‘And you may ask yourself Well. How did 1 ge here Pople wor se your Web ef hey sat id ther wy rund ‘You know tis fom your own experience asa Webuser: you go ta site and cs find what you're loking foro gate out how the site sgn, youte not ely to stay long—or come back. So how do you create the proverbial “lea, simpl, and consistent navigation? Scene from a mall Pics his We sty afleroon sd oe headed forthe malo buy a chins As you alkthnough the dort Ser, yous thinking “Henn. Where do hey ep chainsaw” Assn you ie you stu ooking at the departnent tures. high up onthe walls (Theyre bg enough tat ou cn ead ther femal the wry crows the sore) “Hmmm? yu think, “Tools? Or Lawn and Carden? Give tha Sears is 0h you head in he direction of Tools you reach the Tock department you sat ooking atthe signs tthe aisle, ‘TOOLS HOUSEWARES LAWN AND GARDENpure, and een how sociable you ae you try another aisle, or you may backup an | When we factor tis decision inthe proces ks something lik this: 24 Garden depart. y the time you dns it ea = Bees) oar rae Cs te. Sch y he mee oer athe "Sn what yuWeb Navigation 101 nny pe. you gosh the same process when you enter a Web sit > Yue usual ting to find something, Inthe teal” ord it might be he ‘egy ror orca of baked beans, On the Web, i might be thecheape ‘shea VCR with Commercial Advance or the ame of the actor in Castanea, ‘ho played the beste at Rick's > os decide whats o ask ist browse fist. The ifeece that ona Web ‘te thee's no oe sundng around who can tel you where things are2 The Web ‘gua fn cections is serching—iyping a description of what youre Song forina seach baad ting back ais of inks oplces where tigi » = =e Sore rp ss Nene hem store ts sehen ne ‘leo rhe na dk pcg ea ai a dion he ‘son The maya ena ‘te nr hang fey ‘ner people (Niles “lnk-doinsnt” wes wil almost buys browse ie searching only when theyre un out ef ie inks to cick ‘licen fetrated by the site For everyone sa, the decision whither a lar by browsing archi on thee cutent ame of mind, how ch of uty tyre in, and whe ‘ite appears te have decent browsable rvigton yu chose to ams, you make your ay hough hierarchy using ins to guide you, Type jl look round on the Home pge for alist of he main econ [lie the sors departnent signs nd ck on the ane tt soem ight “Then youl chose from the ist of subsections. ‘wi any ac, afer anther lick owe youl end up wih st of he kin of ting nc ooking for Tinks to cuamine them in dtl the sme 3) sel snd rod the labs you loking for, youl eave. This tue 08 ann ye convinced they baer ot oFThe unbearable lightness of browsing Looking things on a Web ste and lckng for then the“ er Io osiilartes, When wer exposing he Web in some ways tee tre moing around in phys space Think he words we tepcrence—ke cusing” “browsing and “suring Ad kin Madoc iplay” anoterpape—it takes you «pape But the Web experience is missing aay of the cus me ‘egotate spices. Corser thee adites of Web spce id on ll ou lies > No sense of scale Even after we've used a Web it extensively unless smal site we tend to have very ile sense of hw igi i 0 pages 17,0002. For allwe know, there could be huge comers we've never explore Compare this to a magazine, a museum, ora department store, where you 3 havea eat a rough sense of the soennseen 280, “The praca ris thai edt know wher ye ene citer na he, which mene fs Fard oom when poking > Nosens of ecton na Website’ of andro up ado ‘Weim wat moving up and down wera pad down nthe ‘ierarhytoa mere peal oe pec ee No sense of foraton In physical spaces 2s we move around we acslate the space, We develo a sense of where things are and can\ve may gett the chainsaws the First time by following the signs, bu the next weightlessness can be exhilarating, and a Se ara byt Bin efi oleh soe aehen were mapesioas ‘On the negative side, I think it explains why we use the term “Web navigation” even et eerrecn tess er on oo oh i Spay epalinidloic aan place to another, and figuring out where you ar. FIRST TIME SUBSEQUENT VISITS ‘s alee alae et vtec is the fe eet car appt pee terete sO Mca pete meee vo et ttececmcacety cron ems acing etnies” iS IEIlW 62 Wh a e yt te ‘ a ‘building, the shelves, and the cash registers are Sears. Without it, there's mo there there. ws yor eter tk a okey ee Ck Poe a le i a ns en op te vn on sais 4 i a and eetrace oar sep, ‘Chainsaws? Oh, yeah remember where they wee: right near the refrigerators” Ad then hea straight to them 1a Asa if ofan ig lat Wot oo | Dome ight, navigation puts round Fea nlyeacetoeint boson> ie us ow tse these Ifthe navigation s doing job els you wcasy ahee to bp ad wat your eptons ar. Done correctly it shoul be She surocions you need (Which 8 ood. sine moet users wil ignore any > h gnc coaidence i the people who bu it Every moment we're ina Web Tie Keepng 3 ment caning tlle “Do these guy know what they Sng i ce of te main Scary we ei deciding whether to ai xt io: shorter ver come back eat well thoaght out avigation i on ‘Se et cqpetaniien eh to cent a good impression. Web navigation conventions Pes sce Se coe and bins and een information spaces Mr books {Ei Sapien) bo her ows mangton yc. wth ents at ve coche cer Sine He sce sigs page mmbers and capers. The eoere> “on seat (one) te append aon of the miption cemcats ge wt what eo rand whee lok when we ned lem Panne em a add place eso ace them ui wih of cere snd ee mari o- epics mals a decngeh them fmt “Think of how frastating is when one rmagaines on! pot page umber on adersng evgation cowentons ‘eusting print comertions Ther Sr the bac elementDid | say every page? vee pein nition bal navigation) describe tie| ed, There are two excpions othe lw me everywhere le: Dat appear on every page of site > The Home page The Home page isnot ke the other pugesit is iferent ‘burdens to bear, diferent promises t eep. As wel se inthe next chapter. his somtimes mies that t makes sense nl ous the persistent nswgation there Forms. On pages wher frm need © be filed in, the persistent navigation an sometimes be an unnecessary distaction. Fr instance, when 'm pyre or ty purchases on an ecommerce site you dont ely want me to do anything but nish lig in the forms. The saves true when Um registering, ving feedback, or checking off personalization preferences Forthese pages, it's sel to ave a minimal version ofthe persistent aviation ‘vith just dhe Site ID, a ink to Home, and any Uslitis tht might help me il out the form. J, peste avin should sj-—prefeably in calm, comforiag | Now | Know we're not in Kansas The navn oe re Some ps wil cha he Site 1D ago Me he ling rane fra Web se. Aa Lely on Cara a ere il work the same way.” leave, But on the my mode of travel is Tact Jost har the mvigation appear in the same place om every page with 3 tsk ges you ita confaton ht olin the ae tee 8 sora ia you igh thik And keeping the ame Uo he hp ou oly ave tigate et hae We OO ersten navigation should incude the ie elements you most need t nda al imeee we expect to see the name ofa building over the front «te Site 1D at the top ofthe pae—usually in (or teas Sections—sometimes calle the primary nasption—ace te inks tions ofthe ste: the op level af he site's hierarchy. the highest, sc the Ste 1 represents the whole site, which mean : _ Soochow eae Hin most caves, the persistent navigation wil also include space to display the Temcenes secondary aviation: heist of saectns ne cent tion ‘tame ewe page _. ens on poe Sod there are to ways o get this primacy across i the visual herarchy ofthe ope iter make tthe most prominent thing onthe page, or make it frame Since you dort want he 1D tobe the most prominent le Utilities Fe peter eels rtty he Options hors ny possibly of confision about exp ‘ee f the search (what's eing searched: 7 a rtf these othe whole Web®), by ll means spell Same -— ‘thnk very carefully here sing me options to Timi the Scope (search ‘ns the cent section of the ite, for instance). And also be wary of providing ‘pions for how | specly what 'm searching for (search by tte or by author for instance. or seh by prt mtbr or by product aoe) ‘aedom sea case where the potential poy for adding options to the persist ‘arch bos work the cost of making me igure out wht the options are ‘wheter need ious hem (ie, making me tink, oon to scope the search, give it to me when the search results page and discover that searching 90 many hits, so 1 need to fim the scope, you nant ogre me he Rs wef —ten | get ‘centng tamed up fr And of couse if yore ping to provide options, yo they actully work For instance, when I went looking or he ofthe Serra Madre on the Internet Move Dataset, my sear fo“ ‘sing th defiult scope “AU found only one match od TV show Fes a ae i = es =Secondary, tertiary, and whatever comes after tertiary teespect it When designers have worked coun pag: designs 0 cam cack fo ably - tat sbows ase foe lvl deep Par 1 think because god muldevel navigation is (piven the limited amount of space onthe pose a Bane tobe squeezed in is Pari because designers usally don't cren have ena teoleels if to thick that by ‘Ad then there's the probe of ring spine ani for ower popes. en Sestak yf the people espe fr he cone uly ave for other But the rai that users urually cod up sp popes a they do atthe top. And unless youve worked ov from the beginning. is very hard ograttit on ater and come up w “Tae mora I'v to have sample page that show he potetial eels ofthe site before you scart arguing abou Home page. Page names, or Why I love to drive in LA. youre coer spent imc in oe Angeles, you understand tht not ut ong Fc LA realy gest tig fenny Aad becuse people im LA. ke rng feriouly thy have the bes set igs Fe vere. In LA ‘Set ign ae big. When ye stopped at an nese, you can ed the sign forthe ex css ees. “Theyre in the sight place—hanging ovr the street youre driving on, all you nea eeeer forthe Kn of treatment Becmse I come from Bost: 1 ky ify can manage fo read the street sgn whe vote raf, conversation, and listening ALU TRings MLA, sgn othe Web, Just awh stot ges when things tive page mane at all, But a oon as Tat to see night estan, Ure te beable o spot the page nate too acl ane, hs er corer ao ane att rr Desires eet thik, “Well wee mvt? Thats goed enough Nya adits one en ‘The mame needs tbe prominent, You want the combination of postion, ee, colt and typeceto make the name say “This isthe heading for the entire page” In most ase, it wl be the lagest text on the pape. “The mame needs to match what Lclcked. Even though nobody ever metions it ‘vey site makes an implicit social contract with ts wistors: “The mame of th page will match the wor isk tot thre. {nother words feck na Tink r bution that says “Hot mashed potters” mee ae ‘aay sem trivia, bu its actually a ruc agreement Each ine a ite vides ‘Tm forced think ven if ony fo millsecods, “Why are those wo things trent” And if there's a major discrepancy between the fink name athe+ yu have to compromise, usually benuse of space tii. click on andthe page name don't match exact, the hing is tht a) hey match as closely as possible, and (8) the reason sce, at Gap.com if dick the butons fr Him and “Gifts for Her” [get pages named “its for men” wore” The wording is identical, but they fe! so equivalent, 0 think about the difference, e 5 ts this example, the cutent ston (Women) ad subsection (anor) hte ‘You are here’ “otk beon “marked” There area mumbe of ways to make the current cation sand ‘One ofthe mays vgn can counteract the Web's inherent “lst in space” feelin is by showing me where amin the scheme of things he same way that a "Yous 1 indica does onthe map in chopping mall—or a National Pak eapaiter ——Ongecbe fmonstie —_Cargene ecto Tansor rte ‘aon sao “The most common filing of “You ae her” inatr is that they eto ube "They need to stata out: if they don, they ls he aha vil ens and ent up jst adding more noise tothe page- One way oesure tt they sta out apnly more ian one visual distinction —for instance diferent color and bo test,recalled Sreadcrurbs because they're reminiscent of the trail of erumbs Honsl dropped inthe woods so he and Gretel could find their way back home," Unlike Licatrs, which show you where you ae inthe context of sites hierarchy, Breadcrumbs only show you the path from dhe Home page ‘are yu ae (One shows you where yous are in the overall scheme of things, the sows you how to get there—kind of the diference between looking at ni lrg act ytundtons Fhedaeions canbe | ry wel but you can learn mere fom the map)" vu could argue that bookmarks see the fy al breadcrumb, sac we | dro them a we wanes, in anton of pony wanting ores oe eps soda O a cold a tise in insta ve changed elo ve Style) are mow Bebé ance mathe af vee ten, and ifwe don est them soon enough, ur browser (ike the birds) | wl svalow them up? "se tly Herter efit wi Bn ne i ig ‘aaa tty a ane ages nd oo pa si drag ning de om: sn Surber hh rooster mabe mug se big hee ‘oc Gc om arse eh hte na toned sao ‘Foe ba by ay aa hveopeee Lndmatom ss Sera ee at et honda hah met sae ting nt me ae eee ces ntl recently, Breaderambs were an oda Found ey sites that wer ‘coormous databases with very deep hierar a = ay just hie, ke Yahoos Web dircony. Aa > ul > Panty» ase > an vane or grafted on to the top of very large multi-site conglomerstes, ike CNET. SS msi a ‘where they managed to give users some sense of where they were in the prac Scheme of things while stil allowing the subsites to keep their independent —end ‘ten incomspaibie—navigation schemes. But lately they've stared showing up in more ard more sites, sometimes neu of wellthougit-out navigation. urmos sites, | dont think that Breadcrumbs lone area good navigation scheme eye nota good replacement for showing atleast the top two layers of the he chy, because they don’t reveal enough. They give you 3 view, but t's ikea view _ with blinders. fs not that you cat make your nay around ulag ust Breadcrumbs Ws that theyre nota good way to present most sits, Don't et me wrong, Done right, Bradrumbs ae slfexplansory. they dot ke 2p mch room, and they provides converiet consistent way Goto the ‘ings you need to do most often: back wpa level or go Home. Is jst ha hiae len so as pat of balanced dit, as a accessory toast rte fora age site witha deep hierarchy, o yu ae » Dost use them instead of page name There have een . the ast tem in the Breadcrumbs list do double uy che pte ae separate pagename. Some sts hav ted mang cnn asthe test Breadcrumbs implementation 1 know of, and i usrates largest ot of ates to make tating the aed fr 2 teria he tthe seve “best practices. > Pu them at the tp. Brendcrmbe een fo work best they reat the top of the pe show eveything. think this ie roy because tral margins then making thom seem lke am accessory ike age numbers na hook oF ‘magacine. When Breads are fhe dawn on the page greece “his seems like should mo, uti doesn, probably asset fights or expectation that headings are ushleftor centered, no caning tne noe of the page at the end of is. Four reasons why | love tabs "eat been able te prove ite) bt | seoly suspect hat Leonardo da Vin inverted ders : eet sometime inthe te th century. A interice ‘hye op contening ih a ect ‘primary navigation Result? It makes me think. ("Which one is the real. beim = "eviglon? Which one shoul be using) Tb are one ofthe very ew aes where wing a plyscl metaphor in use inertce actly works. Like the ab dviders theese or tabs on folders in le drome they divide > Use» between levels. Til and ern seems tohave shown that the best sepator ‘between eels isthe “greater than” character) re ‘thateer they sticking out of ina section. And Yous hee: lane> Hi ik alsin) Welcome they make teas oopena section by aching fc snc ‘stax in the eve ofthe Web, liking 02 ‘The coln and sah () are well, bat > seems ob the moe entsng sl a uy ad ss year the iden has relly aug on eA AT eee ee te ou 4 sh ice Bil Gates 2 Ws ny tp—senn make clara his just an accessory Memo tif Cask oe f Min gn sing be above et ‘hed Vind ne. > Ute word -You ar here” Mas pol il . ar but since tiny pe ajayvocatagetycom ensrgitcecae ‘etasoamibeds bison you want between navigation and content > Tho dh eb densa hay sting to make pager more sly Seeyine thos making tem sm to lad dne comely au balan, os ‘Gn si nd sera usefl purpose all wiht bulking up the pape aan | thik they an exellent navigation choice for large sites Here's wy > Thee selfenident. ve never seen anyont—no matter how “coniputer itert"—tok at a bed interace and si, “Hmmm, T wonder what those do > Theyre hard to mins When Io pointand-lick user test, I'm surpeised at how fen people can overlook bution bars the top ofa Web page. but beats ‘noisy dinintv, the hard to overlook. And Because theyre hard to “aks for ating bt navigation, they erate the kindof ebviourataghance =... Tonge | Wea cheap trick, ut effective, probably because is aed on visual cue at ‘wee very good at detecting (things in front of other things), Somehow he resus stongersthan-usal sense tat he ti divided int ton —tharyoute in one ofthe sections, 2 Ifyou love Amazon so / much, why don’t you marry it? i We pcs. Amara wa on of fet soe | “Stk tsi gon ure = continued o ten and polish beirzplerentsion tte pin ws fs, ‘eventhough they kxp adding abs as hey expe to w ay Amazon (tage) aie ied anther hl row of tb, 0 carencg abn shri ook carefully st what Amazon has done over we se Ct hey aes of tei tab > Thersn desu corety For abs o work ofl eect the graphics ave to create ‘sa sion ha the ace tb i i fot of the aber tabs. Ths the min cakes the fer ie tbe —even mote han the inte tab Shape” Trgete ts Son the acne baad be a ices elo or contri 2 ey bod at Aeon ge om hn indy setlig es than inciting toe ig)” ee Senne sits coeate tbe or 309K fn bo fat eter yg 2 separate papi Sor exch ston piecing oe tgen espero Aan i i ti way. te 7 pices weld ik ets aE mama mam SE WIESE SEa30E5 _ aa 9 Malone” To implement rime a oe bane bar ach baton eds tobe a separate graphic Bones have mest bs cae | oat thik they pal toe weighs More tz rat 9 eo ae> Aside ei that it wil be fster. The fheory eth afer the is pe lor ced. Arazon wes 3 ned ot ofthe plces wil beached on the users han ce 22h ab coor foreach section of he he wer move fom page tage the browse wll onlyhavet downlad ges and hey use these coor inthe the sl pcos hat change and not the entre ste ‘her navigational lees onthe page tote ther all opether oor ealing af seston x ean dean long 25 you dont count on fase serene noticing. Some people tenet ly tae {foul rout of 200 women od ost hia mer—parcaly over the age of Wsanatiacive theory bt heey shat it usually means hat users end up 4a} simply can't detect oie oor is Tote on the irs page they se, whichis exactly where you don ttn Pecause of lar lindoes, More importantly, rom what ve 7 sophie ae cached, the Browser sl sto end query othe seed, a much rer percentage cach graphic to make sure it asa’ been updated. the servers atl {pens as many a al) jesse ey he ous sully dsrting cra fet asthe lees nd em sou af elo coding in any usc my (Cloris peat a an addtional cuc, but you should neve tel on taste} ‘Assszon makes » point of using ty vi strated cols st ad ribs ‘Ar since the inactive tabs are acura beige there’ st ofeatras—whic ‘5 caloeblind users can detec—beten then andthe aie hy > seme A= eae ©... Defi no sick 7 han We papal rae delaie effet ‘amps ie. (oad ‘th rower aadsthe graphic from your " [s!> Theat seketed when you emer the t,he no ab selected eg eter fon Quicken coc = to nae Tas a Ret a oenaaeencom onds, when it counts the most, SALON is ge) bes a hada ab ected on their Home page. For a longtime, ently hough, as the ome pe tb fi mn (abled Weleome’ Aevaon had to caeste ther othe setons skef alienating ex ookstoce a teh mesic problem is eet hl dpa cane a So i Ra doce Hdl wart pthc ee Nesta reflection ofa deeper and cane instance), se the impo he tn ‘st became increasingly les book centri, they gare "a Try the trunk test EEL et ig Bien ect ternors Liagine tht you've been blindfolded and locked in he tsk ocx, hen kivem around fora while and dumped ons pg some deep tne towels ofa Web ste. Ifthe pageis wel designed, whos your vin eas you should be able to answer these ustics without hestatan: > What sie thie? (site 10) > What page am Hon? (Page name) > What are the major sections ofthis ste? (Sexton) > What are my options at this lev? (Local mvigaior) 2 Where arin the scheme of things? (ou ate ee” nds > How ean eateh? Why the Goodies moi? Because i's 50 easy to forget thatthe Web esprience Is often moe like being shangaed than felling a garden path When yee designing pages, i's empting 0 think that people wl wach dhe by string t ‘he ome page and fllowing the nce, neat pas youve aid Bt the ely ‘sthat wet often dropped down inte nile ofa site wth idea where we Nye ready ty my aidtank Here's ow ou perform Step Choose page anywhere inthe site a random, and print i Stop 2 Hol tras eng or guint 0 you cat ely study it clone, step. As uickiyas possible ty ind and cele each item In the lit bly Yau wat inal ofthe items on every ge) cmRCLE: »St0 ‘ca mnigaton et 5. "evar here nate) Seach w6 ‘REE amaten on ae sakes Gitecertiicn ED oat oa ea eee Seana \ serum \ ke Ea (=o, sot fpr the uw pen: Te compu reg, _mine, starting on page 92. a I or octet ce ee oe ee a seme nas me pesca ene “Siloam am eee gece ‘mgaeer Beaaa Fund oter pane it WHAT'S WRONG With ‘THIS PICTURE? “eis Sap yt akg sepa rome ut ot Tepe mane tcp rns ether pars st yr St tno cae) Tieerrone ome oe) ‘henna ee ae Sen ams ‘ito cleats oe > Ae inate ‘Detar oe tele ad WHAT'S WRONG wrrH Tats PICTURE? ‘THEIR REVISED VERSION Sen nape rg pear metaey petted me Sesempeeenaroeare -¢ MY VERSION ieee Giccoine me Moeecromet tno Seed ees noe Tigcapees nee ; rman ee, fe sesmarmnmiros ee, amma ——WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS WHAT'S WRONG WITH pant ‘THIS PICTURE? recent Pera i eee ee pence a Wrest my case nee ols of mar sections. The ep Conse sects bt actuate ‘Sts teaetcom what makes pry ght Became Sem ee sora nthe yoevgtn tte mere am ie Bideronithe doses lo ar tl are the content tay Sars Tr ane of se pgs that tems the efron eto ol own otf “ Tease Like the cover ofa maging Homepage neds o entice me win ofthe “good stl?” inside. Contempo, spolight the newest, est, or most pices of content ike top stores an Feature promos invite me to explore aden sections ofthe site or try out features Ine personalization and email newsletters, > Timely conten. Ifthe site's succes depen on my coming bck fen, the Home pe Probably needs to have some content tat sets updated fequently. And even a sitet ‘doesn't need regular visitors needs some su of fe—even if ts only a link toa recent pe ‘elease—to signal me that i’ not moribund > Deals Home page space needs to beled fer whatever advertising, cross promotion za ‘obranding deals have ben made, > Shortcuts. The most fequenily requested pieces of content (software updates, for dnstnce) may deserve thet own inks on the Home page so people don't have to. hunt for them. Indo tacoma ea Ha abstract objectives: ee for. A he sme ine ts and hat mt ooking hte ees xe , se won hing the nian stra age ee, feeno es ei. Senin ‘i crdiiity and trust. For sre isos, the Home ae wi eth vp hea eaten And you have to do it...blindfolded RR tea 0 one deserts Siete nal costinte Nea ce. ices ere sn ys petit ck ting Spy ‘on the Home page tend to get significantly grater trafic eal, hs Home page is the waterfront property of the Webs I's the most ite ecpnictpt copay atone | le reetesstaceedioeet Olek c pdenicy of most user o scan down the page jst fr enough 10 ure dunteard ih pain nt ct stheane pg tt the Home pos fa 2 © ee teaera apd ery Psst Home pe cl ss ‘dy wa 9004 9 roo fnmiy head when lester new sieiortac tong Te onfa tn See tei tine onsen Tore lance, cael and ui Ince be sete answer these questions a ia dein first few seconds, interpret ct ‘T'm looking at in the first few seconds, interpreting The First Casualty of War ae over dae ows coh te Heme agro ascmplih fa se int acompler en se et ste IM sg design cant doit al. Designing a Home page nevis ff ge gett Fm much moet coc neering on ‘crptomis. And asthe compromises ae wacked out andthe pressure mounts © pawl ny chances ong sing 0 TE vin jst one more hing. ene ngs eal ge oon "hon thing you ctf ose nthe bl - 5 Sar ee ng vot o> A tot iseooeing te i peu, Whee ? onset deo ssign took at, her’ ne thing fea ‘ ny of people mel sie lear enough what thee, ~ae THE TOP FIVE PLAUSIBLE EXCUSES FOR Aa iter er ce How to get the message across jngan the Home page an cone car un gather ae two important lacs onthe op terettcas of what the ste is about dent ofthat the ery ied nila 8 sooty Ame Sherman Reel grea tA agi RO at eat obs ebony. 3 Trecpae) ry feupee ian siete they cet are Scticouimn ]_— Snetonet atte ie the ge therein > | Sete ter it | let a te page kein nes know 1.) | fortamsin) Whaat ln beet se Dura tbe j ‘eran seal ot et teens ese? = etenpg tie at te pow de gorse “ptm pot aren youre aureus t at reek een te toca aa oh SSSokh ae a em ate {eri ose unsond our TV ri "eth teu st a roe sete og east tea > The Welome nb The Welcome ein sf ese st eee cone ese dei ‘iim ) Stetina pee Ape proven ck on the Home oe Ut ble wi lb se were Spot i tet everyone wil use tes wo ckmens—a cress eye Tell aes Most core wil probably yt goss what test ast ro te Greil eles oF the Home pe But cages yos¥an== Hiseon te page where they can go find Theceis als a thin x em ise then space oe nite Si Pare cent enyos mone vse Ase hth ital curs rake icles ht this who® as 3-708 8 "ce users wll expect to see an oi ts SP 99 Supe ov. Out ad the naw ingens a 3fcna, hae bem ela yal pt in ch conser rth whats Oats lo We cold ase ol yo hab {1031a Fee are ow guidelines for geting the message across et de 89 EBC Mec. Fy sce fo eonvey the ba She's ec at much sce ers Te eatin {0 n0C MAN Use ay pee eae SE Bepeston 2 mesepstiy ae re that anybody doc Know what hist ng aire Homme Fase ate usually too much fc popes enero SH oe beens) you eimai It Iie exon see's beige rr clamoring se the Home page space fr ober purposes, epi the po sco and an oT a plist wo mention every great feta jhe nD a 00S inpetniens rake Essence or example Hocause oftheir novel propesition (ho03¢ oq, out). soe ity providers), Essentacom has alt of plain’ to do, so they wise tence seiitat Home page space do it Almost everyelementon the page hp, fp» Dataset taplin or reinforce what the sites about es: nef he most import things oe. You a or nu aoe : do sho the Home urn pop en sa akon lr The cs organ ee aster dining tis de ce Ye Hone Parr one thing nobody inside te yazan ee the coe tae ch itcasutecasicat Seitnoe ene ‘ova psig cot tet hat characterizes the whole enter. sig es it grea. Taglines have been around orang nein and publishing “Thousands of Vat inposiity than there rein the beavers" andl the Nevs Tits+ Good alines comey differentiation ‘oma Website the tagline appears it below above, or next to the Site 1, — oe ‘aes reas it sonst ‘lines re ery fice way tm get your message aross, because theyre the ne place on the page where users most expec to fd a concise statement of the » Bad taglines sound peneric. HIME soeee stn ence on ieee ania Beale alin yt mone ie We bing gure Saget orto prac ee ee" Ames eens ie tageccrecyeric ypynaee cae = Toy ad est, dont awww ing mt oe a ee Plea ele comet cbc saree Some aries to lok for when choosing a tgn > Gocd nes ate dea informative. eee taglines ce vague » ood snes ar just long enough. Six to eight words seem tobe long ey fll hog, but short enough to absorb easily “Ver. Wse-~ yb good tan fr aT commer. = athe doesn el me ema "icone reae he nds co tae norte kine ‘hebucnse frig" imuttcren st {06emia site comes from s srg and is impor 0 Pep pcs hing erp proces should leapt eine Anda oe se orsign nifTinaeurang we tern eprom coerthng atest even tp tis abscess ey pois. canbe ia nk proms ying “Sartre!” and"No ck ne i” Wonk ke search atheist Italo helps to bel tec nes ySign in,” and ‘Stare sey ofthe Home poe it fen sks there. Typical erence Je the Home page has 36% a desripie pase 9-05 yo dent eth -P*°° ancfeat+ Difrent venation. The Home page olen requires avery diferent yout om ‘theater pages soit ay be necessary to use horizontal insted of eta ‘svigton oF ee vera > More spc for enti. The Site ID on the Home page is usta ager than inte stent navigation, ike the large sign overa store entrance, adit usually nls Toes empty spec next ifr the ane, which may not appear on every ps ‘fs also imporant nt to make ay changes you don't have to. The Home poe ‘vio and the persistent nasgntion need to have enough in common so wsers docs mater the rion vera cn He ee saa ‘Sr cogu immediacy th eye two deen wero ofthese ive Ml LORS gue pat on nr ‘verywhere ese. And even the minor aitons inthe tonnes fie For ‘aries /Carir and The Company {Company cali bcs ts sone thar eye the same. What doe materi that once you eae the Hse Pe > 1 Want Wilde becomes Consumer > Wildl disappears entity > Enterprise appears out of nowhere. and > fen eames that re the same rent inte sme it “The moet important thing io Keep he section mares exactly the sare: the same cer te same wording and the sie grouping Italo elps to try to keep 7 of same yal cues as posible: the same typefice, colors. and capitalization. Fererampl the Wife com ste hus «very nice desig and generally exen ‘cocution, bt there's to much ofa disconnect between the navigation on Home page ad the est ofthe it, onlthat he two navigation systems are related at isle he Home page {Rave ig out Ue site"e navigation al ove fh ry of question aus ating ver my herd ae The trouble with rollovers ives how precious Homepage rel estates snot surprising that peo ave hl Kinds of mays to cate more apparent spece—bind of ke using andl ty x front prope a ng rllovers 0 “pop up an explanatory graphic ax you ns a rie description of the section or is fe subsections si inp ein adie eee Lntatogs it and pasa pronto ssi ow ad mena if yo hve ade! hat eof camp agen a ow movil good des snc appar without Cutering up the a wh ung rollovers this way poole th $ You veto seek them oul Tos the descr, you aeta ont at each bution. They can ju fe page ‘wu can nly see one at time Since ou co" er af ts cet to you cat sen them and you crt compare then, ‘eye itchy Somehow is jut harder a et essa to euiely The solution (spi isto ake he ein he popope ait ss posible + Theyre nefetive unless the popup appt near whee ye poling Ke the popups hou apeermght nett buon ht oo pining you have to keep Foking back ad Forh betseer whet oe at Sov pointing. cor This x where most rollovers miserabiy—and fer agn04yout creating rollovers with iain worksanallbowser HTML he ops XY) | woos XY] | | sia a ‘a por upon op of anying E to leave empty space i the page dyn | | were the poppe wl pp Coc mem Adsine ening empty pce would de the goal creating mare usable space Aesgners usally have al othe pops ‘appear inthe sane place—miaing they very hard tous. vekone XYZ) [wena oY sone mm | dn = ie i hig bergen ce aiprtparandoc other trer Pag een ee Imerys a ‘it, eae ist for the most common use of tlloves: ves when you pont athe. vom ton eda po ad a nice element of size” and they also make Py using smaller, more tightly paced buttons that ce =i sito sve su eyo dik iam) The trouble with pulldowns atic cete more Home pra eens Sys pollown mens? There's edt snore pu ity eve spice. alate they rim sme of save role a llores > Yu avetsek them out ot havea deka he Palma ee st, ote n chance on thelist ica our eyo yo ante page Ton be ail drwiacken te Home pape vice ove nog Cope these conten, > Theyre had to san, Designers have no conta oe he sping | formatting of he ist to make them more eae, eae’ eh po way to divide the it int aubgroupe. > Theyre twitchy. Again, a with eller, the a he is cane a so quickly makes it harder read Plidowms are mos effective for alphabetized Iss tens town names ike countries, sates or products, becuse there's no thought invled- fi ooking fr WR, fe instance, 1a just srl downto he V's Bu theyte much les eet for Tiss where da om the name ofthe hing Vn looking fo especialy be st in alphabetized ors lng enought roqie saline ‘Unfortunately since the main benefit of uns isin sce. designers are most empl to use them when Juve Tong it 6 dpa: sen ter west tac hem 1 Semen puns bean hey ta Yt ost cases, | think the dawbcks of plows : oie elem, * rt plow“ rp du men (8)marin Rotate your stock ‘Thee be speach to ceting more apparent space onthe Homepage ti works ery wel pricy for promoting features ofthese Instead of several small promos that are always visible you can use the same amount of space to cle through a series of thre larger promos, diferent one each time the pages loaded. ‘Seen of rer rom inte sare pace ‘he mall static promos afer Ive vised the page afew times the probably “fy cwen ing tem approaches zero, and they're just wasting space. But f ‘oye changing over ime, there's a much better chance that they trot my ¢ Ad having the niger space to ply with gives you a beter chance of conveying sv nseging message fasting them in groups of tree makes it easy to deal with a problem that fics ‘Reb sdretsing—wha if! go back io elick on am ad and it’s no longer there» ‘echuding inks tothe other to at the hottom ofeach promo, Sexe Sch Promo wil only be displayed one-third ofthe ime, this approsch ich at be acceptable to advertisers or cotbranding partners who tend to panic he ‘ought tat een oe vitor might not be expoued ta thelr a (They rate ov 3 Permanent placement on the Hote page even fits smal and ineffective) T° ‘hy Tus recorsmend using his sppsich to promee featur ofthe sie it ee Why Golden Geese make such tem pti targets, or “Funny, it tastes like tice - “her's someting about the Hore peg tal eee Ihavior When fit in on meting seat slrase “ling the golden goose” rain ‘These ae four popular way oil he wos > Paton banner onthe Homepage yo dont nee Hm py stall pes far more “its than any other page nn ve, tc abanier ad there, But the a degrades oe see ence se at come ack youl end up losing pageviews on als oe pp ve visited, ‘Probably the worst thing abou nner don he Home pg st wn the star ofthe pag, laringlee above he ice nt sce and less opportuni crete sod fin in oe ages ore to ero (fete ih ot? rater wast etl slowest ding Seenton esd taking up space» ber adi fin te sew aig Se Dige. And ithere's one page that shou od sow i loa hgh tha the phrase con fom te sory of ka he : Seer ermne tance Cea ahha nam par re ge ome we¥: cnarree 7 sce that dio dont have” Fyour business pen cls fo bane ee ge Home page poy for the aberising that’s going to atract vison thee in theft place. then naturally you need to havea banner ad. Bu iyo, ‘Gop aboul at least ry to pt some restrictions on the download size of he de and seak the Home page design so the ad doesn't push the start of the ‘oge dwn any farther than necessary, > Promoting everthing. The problem with promoting things on the Home page isshat works 0 well Anything with a prominent Home page link is guar nied fo gt more trafc—ausuallya great deal more—leading al ofthe it's Stakeholders to think, “Why dont have one?" “The problem isthe rewards and the costs of adding more things to the Home page sen shared equally. The section that’s being promoted gets a huge sin a ‘rac. wl the overall loss ineffectiveness ofthe Home page as it gets re etd is share byl sections. vs perfec example ofthe tragedy ofthe commons ? The premise ssmpie: An ‘shared sure (a eommon’) wl instably be desiroyed by overuse, Take 3 tn pst for example, For each animal a herdsman adds tothe consrnon pss heres all procedsflom the sale ofthe animal—a postive benefit of +. Bor ‘he oeativ Impact of adding an animal—its contsibution to overgrazing—s ‘shard byallso the impact on the individual herdsman isles than ~1. The ons ‘senile course foreach herdsman is toad another animal tothe berd. And outer and another—preferaby before someone else does. And since each ‘stonl herdsman wll reach the same conclusion, the commons i doomed Preserving the Home page from promotional overload requires constant vit: lance, since it sully happens gradually, withthe slow, inexorable addition of {someone thing Al th akcoldes need to be educated about ie (EERE plowswating the Home page, and offered ther methods of ding : fom eter pope pages o aking runs usin pene eset tae amateur matheorian Wii Forster Lr? hy niece / rams cart Ran (The > Se ataatlaaeten ibn nes the ess fen what ict Gigs Frenstew Home calls the "NASCAR esc din ur oft ads ‘thew’ lot of wibfl thinking tat these furs of os ads might be worth someting ease here ea lt of empanies whose business plans dpe o tang tem wih each oh ke so uch Cncerste sone. einer MO Ee Se me Don get me wrong: Tm not saying dnt make dea. nts your Home page desin.> Geting greedy for wer dt. Some sites mak the mistake of tying to squeeze ‘personal information out of users the moment they cone through the dy you be the judge “he wort cae siesta require users orgie ere they can een ome Dede tT OW wel tec 9 Ho terol equlent opting up large "Go away" sign. Fortune neg ‘apis becoming a mistake that onl Depining designers mak, Beadabaatewer tise too quran > What's th ut esen on wethoughtout ses, there's sillaemptionograball the eg ce > De you know where to tar? For instance, BabyCentercon's stn Fi point ontheie Home page sete ‘ast understand, as) use an impossible to miss (hanks to pong peggy | “start here" heading and a lage arent All you have todos ener your his date (or your due date, i yor proran and BabyCente's Home page wil ss ‘welcome you with information kes your eis current age or your sage pregnancy es great way to get users engaged in site quickly. But even a site sows BabyCenter countess the temp sp.one step further and sk for an 8 ‘ares rght away (You actualy done ‘enter an emai adres to use the Fear you a ind hat ont without clicking) anes Pome} {suspect tha large number of vitor who would be curious enought fear ial they ht provide was an anonyrnous bith date die not ‘hen asks ie an ident to go with the ae ut these same people Probably be eager to provide an email addres if hy were asked of! sen the feature wor, so they had some idea of whal they were going tof!" ie ‘ Ln} se ailmpoticopacre pers ace a -_— «ADO YOU KNOW WHERE To START? ast te fees Se tomy fenpled tock or Demamber ic, thee goes ft fre when we, Aerts wis terse Tei futon werk rane seers inact on ten es Wate Lets Got to err tas trleonny sca says w Shodhavecteted she rar Sweners Enter lr bitoni factsncea ed to ducer ‘suet ets leeds! Weston Ay or, MY VERSION ‘ree canges wo mate wal tte starting pts. date cert the Big Suen sh tareandid gered eee acetosigntrght ort Hone MY VERSION #2 hays tat etree gt ‘tated the oe steps ester tara no fae stan tt hy 5 omstpe ste romtzee Sotmecin sp aversin wrth, testa nest 57 {DfndttymieceWHAT'S THE POINT OF THIS site? Prohcte an eee set es mp ee ‘eprint Seca tape he Swe fr Pract ad Rec ie iSiee the Wooster pune ea Scerpemnot be aagy be ence se ‘ods the tape an nd hg op ak, {Setertste ontop rom a se pate ‘Sreestesand ech apunag is ese ees nas ai oriare sane Seppec ame et ‘Tos reves writen by Pocono esas nraty te ste mah neve power SSesatvce stages ten poo aces = represen wh sce ee nove one Siredc geste nghen egos for eta ten chet on tought ons store Seimeninameandi ama Sercacey stems emer oe iba Rms ny on ofr nt ‘epee Qa see rea tea ies gee meno iene fat Fess 0 YOU KNOW WHERE To START? : > Ypesmeig BeretaaiS “The Farmer and eM ONT ETT) Should Be Friends” UA nom en PUGS hy CROPss crs dscns rigs debates, nce he havea et on with most discussions of eligon and plitis: Thy consist agey of rorleexressing song held personal belts about things that ait be proven — posed in the interest oF preci onthe best way to do something important rope ex bon} ees i oe. And ging hs oF He ese wast team members, “Everybody likes ” ‘lef work on Web ser ave : adel Web wer, we end i Te aout We sites. PR ee soit tae yr ct ever Pe teva Wee seen tt NET aac cy we ove te ten tase Tg We realy enon es ith — od 0 ‘od when wife working om 2 Web amit uns out be eb feligs atthe door. ‘The results usually 2 room fll of nds wth song pearl about whist makes for 3 goed Website. ‘od given the strength of these teewiions—and ha theres rar tend these kes nd diss ers in general to think that most We users ike the same things we ke We tend to think th ‘Web users ae ike ustes aot that we think hat veone like ws, We know thereat sme tere wo bate the th People oun ps we love—afte al, there are even some often sn Web team. But not senile people And thete aren many of then Farmers vs. cowmen his ye of personal pasion, there's another ler: profession pasion ike the farmers andthe cowmen in OMlahomal the players ona Web ean nn 2 dee perspectives on what constitutes good Web design based on wht iy 0 xp Baines dene esigners and developers, for Instance. Designers tent think that mest sie that ate visually interesting becate hy like sites that ae visually Infact they probably became designers because they enjoy wood desig tai makes things more interesting and easier to understand* eelopes. on the other hand tea to think people lik sites with los of col because hye sites with lots of oo estes. The result i that designers want to ld sites h ses with interes 4 ook eat, avd developers want ing, origina, elegant features. mn not sure wh the ‘snd who's the cowman inthis picture, bt do know that thet iferencs ten lead 0 conlct—and hard feelings-—wen it cmes time to hy. Goring, omy inte ume ae lay wd with he ‘ng some Farmers ft ae le oe tage, em deing instep hee. Ba hin hye ai terse, tn) fees ine desis 00 progam Secs ‘pois large las between wis A nce des rode? : eth ype ace pe agent mr nko Jricsed on making iter prose recns cae ets stele Parnes, and reventiegenetng des Taering on those omits ands on the shen rar the the designers an programmer. es ee ee tccete acne "Sean ite is ire Ti ssc frosty snes comore cans 0°°% pio see Po puna pcling tere ome Ho me LP Teak ‘ea dig ae, When ted ae 3.1 ham ha i al Trepestions gol Mkely Gd tht these ame peg gen foal fationality without getsng inthe my, . The myth of the Average User “The bleh most Web wer ate ike is enough 10 produce gridlac in the ‘reage We dergn meeting But being that Beli es nother one, even inoue the elf at most We wes arelike anything a ap Sst else As son x the Gash of personal and professions opinions results nasal, ‘he conversation usualy tums to finding some way (whether its an expert epin, research, cus groups or set testa) to determine what mo users like or deat ike—to igure cut what the Average Web User i really lke. The only problem is no Average Use ‘tats not tsa tat there arent ome things ou shad fous rly do. There ste some ways0 dey a rong fs jos hat they are’ the things that ese esd, tne ngs ‘tl ge abet The antidote for religious debates ‘oe pons 14 not productive oak questions kc ‘Do rst pope i doen snenus?”Thevight Kind of quesion to skis “Does is yaldoes vin nn ands wording inthis context on this page cress od experince or mo ‘pople whoare key tose this site™ ln tal othe time Ive spent watching people use the Web has led me to t conclusion: all Webuser te unique, and all Web use is doses ‘The more you watch users carefully and listen to them articulate their intentions, motiations nd thought processes, the more you realize that tes individual reactions Webpages are based on so many variables that attempts to describe wer in tems of one dimensional Hkes and dislikes are futile and counter Productive, Good design, onthe oer hand, takes this complet nto account. Rasen way ered gut: ing Yoke tease clcve sil eerie con. common ose bd are version ofthe ang een aide vrn Pm a pe afl hg yt ae it nt tn we se Met ier Wher dates bout what peopl ie ns tine nd is te ac. anges die amen a breakin, ye som sso an of lath wg ste ine Cede work And by opening our cso ft hor var ios Freon aed capes are, tng ke dw hp iia to Wer eu yo that Think testing is good hin? Tefal ree chaps ae allabout wh why ad ow 2 An the wos thing about the myth ofthe Average Use stat it reinforces the e hat good Web design i lngely a matter of figuring out what people ike.’ ‘matractve notion: either plldowns are good (beeause mast people like therm), ct theyre bd (becuse most people dont}. You should have links to eveything in the siteon the Home page or you should. Menus on the top work beter than mens down the side, Frames, pages that scroll ee. re eter good ord, black or white The peoble ithe ; ‘reo simple tight” answers for most We design questions east not forthe important one), What works is good, integrated design tht il 8 ned—carefily thought out, well execute, and teste, Take the us of Fash, fr example Ifaske, ‘ample Haske, some percent of users will xy th ‘sally Ike Fash, and an equal percent wil probaly say they hate fe But what they * Fas, Mactomeda’s 0 for creat imac and interactive wer interfoces, etfs ere woogie emeiesig lise ylan ern Why dt ed Foe imine derinty axt2 oy ‘we me our sane eeu a te Into eet en to lity testing OEE ‘SIMPLE—SO YOU DO ENOUGH oF Ir Asoo Uae “launching in mo necks nto rts’ en Sing in teme snes ea tt ornate Ghenicalacory fetng, becuse La prey gos wh AI then i's amos cern sess Incas appreaching and everyone’ ng ne 2! S35 Maye we heer do some usb ng cal seo HBS io months, then sare that hy wok ls ns Sena debates sally aaa somatingso smc He eS Opin around the fice pt wee 0 ert ss FS Me ine sey one, ome ik the legs one. iy sone AS Abauihorze he expense ested of ix rng tome done ei” ie -sod while uy esng il sometines ste hee argument, hin Cal eds dng ean that the gs hey were uty iu inrot pat wets decide hich lo apse bse Sah eto put windows he oom. Frist iy igh de et make mach diene wheti Jou owt the hoon sag Cetera menos sty understands the se propeion a yours isthe uch te approsches. the Miheting pose may els presaling ito spp higher nahn 2 care they know is focus groups, {ofene work very aro make cies xen atta teats ot for rps Herc’ deere vee > tafe group. small op of people (aly 50 enh ate fess and designs that are shown them. is syrup pace sn fale comes fom partipans racing chines on 2, good for quicly geting a sampling of wer cision ses Sadly hiss how most usability testing gets done: too litle, too late and fer al ie paw ngs Repeat after me: Focus groups are not usability tests. ina phone cals even seater apotonpe ofa ste, orsome sktches of india pge and wie figure out what tis, ob) ryt0 use ito doa ypc tsk Focus groups can be great for determining what your aie wis Bikes the abstract. They're good for esing whch thea hetnd ‘makes sense and your value proposition is atrscive. Ad the ca tes totes tiemames youte using for features of yours sed wf eats sl fil about your competitors. Bs hey not god for learn sboot wither jor ste mice uw ge fing you can lean fo acs ous ae is sey begs desire se asec A = the proces, You can even run them iin the proces fou wat dns heck and Beste your message but do mise them or 59 ne They we ell you whether people can actly we yours Several true things about testing When ete are the main things 1 know abou sine: the amine requests for a focus group, i's saly 2 sign that the weetceenenhas eens Me Be koeeen ‘Siacgeie nach oeknmaha eetemgeacheteae 7AM eit Ne Souttroemeectgemcicnamnaianyaesia fp lessnyromn fo Seger ee el 7a way ond ‘carl over how teste actualy gets put together, ‘sting reminds you that wot everyone thisks om, uses the Web the way you 6. ina‘rust say thatthe best way to think about testing was that twas broadening experince I rersinds you how diferent—and the on and gives youa es perspective on things lice wae People ae ut ly ed hat tengo lle having ens visting Fon cutee nevi. a you ake ie oat rounds wih thers roe a about your hame town that you usually don't notice because you're so used to e the Ant these ie yo elie that lt of things Ua you cng sed ret ovo weve Telog oe users 100 percent beter than testing none Testing always works ven the worst test withthe wrong user wil show you things you can do tat wl Testing one wer carlin the projets beter than testing 50 near the end. Not orl sssumye that esting news to be a big del. But you make it ino & big al you went doit early enough ar ofen enough to get the mos ut oft. imple test arh—while you sl have time to use what you learn from itis mos always more valuable than a sophisticated test later. he conventional wisdom about Web dewlopment i that's ery easy ta oi changes. The ruth st tus out that its not that easy to ake changes 0 ‘conceit use. Some perceniage of users wil exist alot ny kind of gs, ‘deve apparel imple changes often tum oto have frreachig effets 0 ‘thing you can kep ftom bling wrong in the fst place spr. The importance ofreeriting representative users is overrated I's god to do our estng with people wo are ik the people who wil ute yous site, but it's mh mae impranteeand oeBy mao l e ‘Recruit loosely, and grade on a curve. i The pi "etn not prove o apres afr our Inde, opie woh fox nae at yaa tengo pore ‘ite nmgon eis beter han alton yes 8 bt osc ‘Noone athe eos oe up th ind of ole eprint oe nl a ‘esting can do is provide you with invaluable input which, taken together ‘Taser: profil judgment cone eae ila frye hate wind wh gee cohen et and fray ae eee buco ‘weep nut Lost our lease, going-out-of-business- sale usability testing ‘ssi testing hasbeen around fr along ime andthe bases oy simple: Ifyou wart o knoe whether your software or yur Web ste your VOR eonte conto is easy enough o use, watch some yepl hile ty tt sein te whet they run into trouble, Then fit and es a se ropeiion You Inthe begining tough wailing mass en pene oe Yo Patina bly ab than draton tein atlas video cameras so you coud record the se’ cs A the ering You had o rer of pls you cal pe ws statataly significant. was Science Ics 20 10 50.009 happen very oe. Bat in 1 Jakob Niesen wrote pape tied “Ussil Enerssh Discount ad pointed ot hat it cd ave be at 9 Yas rab ab, and you could achieve the sae e os xanga em "Prag ofthe Third Iterator ec vac a MA, Sp ag, ayes merce mgs Bras ao !preadng Be word i is widely read oie Are Crm Tg nce aon) bereese afd aby ein masa ge tp forward The nl robin pe ost prope il ec esting 53 ig desl ing cry Sh ea $5 $5000, and 262 rest doesn happen or fen enough “vin oingocommend to you inthis capers someting ewes more. Tontour ae, plagotobusinessae salty testing, imag ry eran how todo your own testing when you have no mone ae yuan ald oie profesional todo you testing, by all mean {bard dt ifit mea oul does testing a : = E — = Eg sic: J) geeeesetaserece arene TO TEST le re were eso ares ett es = _§ = bars crns in We woulést know _Westrug he ticket prt of aby co Pe S| cee oD a vas appa | aaeure 9 How many users should you test? temo. end take el unter frre ound of tig three, or st most four, 5 ‘The fst the users are very Hikely to encounter all ofthe mi Jems? and ifs much mere important to do more roun cyerthing you can out of ach round. Testing only three You wi do another ond soa? ost signlcat pot of testing han owing ser helps ensure tht ‘so since you wil have ie th problems you uncovered inthe Est rund nthe ‘eat ound is ky hat ll he users will uncover anew se of problems sine hey wont be geting stuck on the st set of problems. Testing ony the o four users also makes i possible o fest and debrief inthe ‘ame dys you can uke advantage of what youve leamed right awa. Also, when yootest more thn four at time, you usually end up with more notes than anyone 2a ime to process—many of thom about things that are realy "nits, which can culy make harder to ee te fares forthe trees, I's better to sty focused the biggest peoblems tx them, and then test agin as soon as posible * Jol ton and Tos Landauer ave en fas "etn adnate, Ned Tat wih 5 2 show tha tvting fie wae wil wen unre 85 robes and that tho rset ef ing rh ‘5 atch Nelo’ March 200 Aare elm Why ou Os "fecece iano rams ‘Sx Citht wer since the atonal cet yr user wi be compart ba ek =a no ES ne TEST WITH 8 USERS TOTAL PRoBLems, FOUND: 5 pes ® sie usr me fre pots lnatmaetast iter rab foment ny eeprom sista co ‘WO TESTS WITH 3 USERS TOTAL PROBLEMS Scott FOUND: 9 Tires etecssnen biotin Recruit loosely and grade on a curve in wesebo "es people ce to tet they fin pend i of ne ig orcs es hy hin wl peice tei tpet liens nsa ma the ages of 25 and jo with one thc et 9 or ‘nue recently purchased expensive shies. ae. ‘Te bestkept secret of usability testing isthe ese wih dot mh ie re usd the Web eng Kom ste ly ely ned ae pol ipso yond i et ford tore somone tei i Pi of rounds of testing hat odo the‘nant. ut finding the isl user means youte going to do Fewer tess, recommend diferent approach: Take ene you can get (thin Kits) and grade on a cune > In other woud, ty to find wsers who reflect your audience bu dont aout it Instead, try to make allowances forthe differences between festand your audience. favor this approach for three reasons sething up the people sou > Were all beginners under the skin, Scratch sm expert and youl fen find someone who's muddling through —just ata higher level > ts wma nota good ides to design a site so that only your target audience an use. fyou design ast for accountants using terminology that you think 2ccouslant will understand, what youl probabi discovers that a sell bot nsgnfcant number of accountants won't know what you're talking abt. And inmost cases, you nee to be addressing novices as wel a expers aw, and ifyour grandmother can use it, an expert can, > Expert are arly insulted by something that ie clear enough for beginner vecyboy appreciates lary (True clarity, tats, and not just someting thats been “dumbed denn) > Ifyou sites going to be used almost echsively by one type of user adits 0 hae o recruit from that group, then dot. Fr instance, if your auence wil ‘ealmost entely women, then by all means et jst women > lfyour audience is split between clearly defined groups with very divergent interests and needs then you ned o test wets fom each group at easton Foc inane, you're bulging a univers ite, Fr at east one round of teste You wart to recruit two students, two professor, two high school seniors, and ‘vo administrators. Bt forthe thee rounds, you can choose any mis > APsing your sit equites spsfc domain knowledge 4. currency exe ste fr money management professional) then yon eed fo recat people mi ‘hat domain knowledge for atleast one ound of ets. But dnt oi fo every ‘ound ift wll reluce the uber of ete you do ————— when you're recruiting: “ont reasonable incentive. typi PE fr noha Fm $50 for averaze” Web wes ose Z eal hundred dot fra at fama specie domain, ike dco i ager Pa sorta the ing ats ins) ak er gn 00° Fetes Glpeone eno sow upon ine, xe prin sant nd eston i nly 30 minsies, people usally hee ty, tnvel ine Also I'd ater have people wins canan peoplewhe are desperate fr the reney Bae Re Pesl hireatee pope cutee ange us Some feedback very easy. and wit te abn tba hour And youl be pid §_— for your ime” beat pce he es joe ima Acid dlscussing the site (or the organization beking the sie bes Yon ‘santtheiefrstlook to ell you wheter thy can nue catches tos stain tar, (Ofcourse, ithe’ coming o yur aa ves py ‘20d iden whose site it.) Dost be embarrassed to ask fiends and nighbors. os cant noe he Jour imposing iPyou ask ends cr nighbors wo prt Nos psp se the experience t's fan to have someone tke your oon shane = id fori, and they often Tear someting veil ht tryna the Web oe computers in genera. fe)anaes UsAnrY esti Who should do the testing? Ppeeamt sl lie 5 why at rp febalie rcicemost people can peu gras Bye cere rien wee on cre ori choose someone whom jou woae eget Sto, Who should observe? Gyo nas 1s 3 pod ies ocr eroor—am nee Reelin dociopaes tora Heed eyo can Arto get senior management spy rs cme fscnated and tay Jonge than hey poe. Where do you test? Ago vel need ia fice or oference roam wih to chat, 3 PC or Mac ‘aia mere conectoniyoure testing ve ste camcarer sods ip he ge toy Pees fete) What do you test, and when do you test it? The able onthe next page shows the ice ds ‘och psn of Web development Aelore you even begin designing your st, you spl be esing comes ‘he ity be actual competitors, o¢ they may be esta se scsi oa inion, or features to what you have io mind ‘ether yourself then watch one or two ote peopl se th a ‘orks nd what doesn. Many people overook hiss us susie Tuning sceneone build 3 working prottse for you Hig ver conducted « test fore testing compare sts nll) Psttelre chance to get the hang oft Irwin ort iether hints about what todo, 1 otHke being a therapist, they say Tim not sure what to donee." you should sy, "What do you think you ‘hou do o “What would you do fyou were at home?™ 2 Keep your instructions spe. There aren’ very many, so yout learn them quickly. “Look around the age ad tel me wht yu think everythings and what you would be likely to lick on." “Tell me what you would cick on nett and wht you expect you would se then” Try to think out loud 8 much 8 possible.” Dont be fai keep repeating the: iw be more boring to you than ta the ser. > Probe robe, probe. You have to waka delicate ine between distracting oF avenge werd diego hat hye el hkng which ‘hey may nt know themselves, For instance, when a user say, Ike this page” you always want to ak a ead- ‘ng question like What do you ike best about i If this produces “Well, {ke {he lyout then you need to follow with “What appeals to you about the layout” ‘Yau looking fr specifics, not because the specifics themselves ace necessary !mportat but because ekiting them i the only way you can be sure you Understand what the user i ely reacting to. a Ie afta to Improvise. For instance i the paler, explain it and Ft hi pon tse Fie ee ene realy ov Asan eb oat be dippined i wr WoW ea yw fetid You canon cn moe y nergy nee das. Besse mo experincd we ene Tox-mmdaling through," you may not even notice durin gn ne > ke sme notes afer each son Alves cafe mins gh ser festsessiom toot down the main things tt sruckyey ryaderarntn Sousa theext est twill every hard o remem ny ne Asample test session Heteanantted exep fom pint ante in te elt thas since been redesigned” The eran az nce ni es bout 5 yar ld z sin for 716 hast fata om rvingre 2 sue of his cape us) /My name Seve Krug, and fpsngt be walking you through robb alady know, but let me explain caked yo to come here today. We're Sea ee occ wht is ke fractal people to use i ou. You cat do anything probably the one where you don have to worry about ty what you think, so 158) sn ip won he companion We fcr) 4 sero the pr thas cing tee, you ca a ny, “Dart wor abou ring ‘ae th poe yore ping et" 9 site quctions, otk. mayne Mee per hem ight 243). i2 er erated in hw pope do whe they én o ‘hem, b uve someone siting nx toasrwer any questions you were done, ‘ie ave lotto do, and fm going 01 kop I moving but wel ry to make sre fa, 10 ou may Have tied the camera With you permission, we're going o videotape te Constr screen and what you have to video willbe used only to bp us gure ot he tolimprowe the site and it won’ be seen by anyone except the people working one Proje Ral helps me, because I dort have © as many notes, Thre are also seme le ching the video in another oom. ou woul, I'm going © 26k you Se" mething er us. simply says tat eave cr permission to tape you butts it wilh ‘sceaby the people working onthe oi says that you wont talc 0 anybody show ice it has" int wee showing you tod. ben made public ye Do you have any questions before we bei Not do thinks. he conpoion ebthe office Tspend most of ny tne femal. get ot of ena ands eee ae nk bit hee gothonh ccopation? mate ‘veneer heard of tht before, What does router de, ct? any favorite Web sites? etmek edo thy ee guess. ie abo ate nts onto ioe I srmetieg ces Good. Nove, oughly how many hours a week 1 Stakescom, because Ihave 3 pet sake. el jou yu ed igh ee = Foci al? “a TIS? Whe: kind of snake? her new Pabatiy an our day at . eae temas ter een toe ane . ‘oad aight to beter Bu ie P64 om, ying games aetna. ow do os sped ht ime? nye, ow. finaly, have you bought fn me woud. a at Po the Internet? How do yo fon the Interne? brayve Bought somethings recent Laidn't do for long tine but ony because ld’ get things delivered. was hard to get things dlvered, because I'm not ome curing the dy. But row one of my relghtortehame al the time, 0 can, 1 what have you Bough Wel Leder a rancot fom LL Bean, ait wrkec out nch beter tan oh wou. mas actly prety ea 3, great. We're de with the questions, and hing a thing ha) list I'm ut going to ask you to look ay ge and tll mie what you think it, Furikes you about 8, and what you think yoy would cick on fis. For now, don't actually click on anything just tell me what you wuld dick on ‘and again, 8 much 2s possible, i il help a you can ty to think out loud so we kon win, you're thinking about 1a)ues the frat thing Toi that me the clo ike the shade of orange aod ie te te picture ofthe sun ot the topo the page nthe eLance Too) 5s, fede] “The global services ere the world comes to get the et ropes Lance community elance Tperlsalot gong on here. 81: have co iden what ary of Ifyou had totes guess, what do you thik right be? Welle seams tohave someting too wlth buying and sling. something [looks round the page apa Now tat | ook atthe ist down here Yoho syle category Hist halfray down the page, guess maybe it must be srvces- Los, ‘nancial creative.they a sour ie 16] Do they get? Without any help, can the users figure out what the site or the page what it does and where to start? atic our ofa you abo erste po i en hese things £0 you can pass it on ta whore, dep to Youre there tind and you shoul nos tetera Here are Some things keep in mind when you chien 9 Brace yourself You may be disppoinied bythe oa fost wont gett Some just won cit Sore wil a > Cnt id ti som Doty oe an det hee ete sigan? Dees yourherarchyand the names youre using for hings—mihe oui want fo have in your heads ots ot wing” ta nine tiny rei! ew Baio : > Hed slappers Yulinow these when ou sehen te wer wil dosomehica WN yg pane Tyo et the enti jung cnt do coca and pel mayne i cheering te stsion wil sap ae eres entcnety seen atleast two uses, preferably hee, bis or hee forehead end sa, “Why dat we think of tha? or ‘Why didnt we es notice that?” These are very alle insights. > Shocks. These wil also make you lap your ead, but instead of saying “Why iat we noice tha” yout say. “How cou she [the user] not noice that” ‘or “How could che not understand tha” For instance, you might be shocked ‘when someone doesnt natie that there ita ments bar tthe top ofeach pos or does recognize the name of one of your company’s product. Unlike head slapper, the solution to shocks wort always be obvious and they ‘may sen you back to the drawing board, > Inspiration. Users wil offen suggest solution or the germ of a solution 10 problem that you've srugled with fra longtime. Very often the solution will De something you'd already thought about and rejected, but ust watching omnes scully encounter the problem wl let you se it in a whole new ight. And oe" something else about the project has changed in the meantime (you've decd! ‘use a diferent technology, fr instance oF there's en a shift in your busines Priore) tht makes an abandoned approach suddenly fssble. > Passion. What are the elements ofthe site that users really connect with? Be are {ant to mistake mere enthusiasm fr pasion, though. Yue ooking fr Ps like “This is eel what Ive buen looking fr!” or “When can Isat using his?” > Re quiet. There's nothing more dsconcerin its mopo sone sound oflughter—orgraans—coming from Sanna ra ne having trouble wing these. > Remember that youre grading ona cure. When ust wes Internet two hours 2 day doesit know bow oiypes URL dors. Ses ‘What a dol.” Thnk, “How many peopl are thre ja ik st ue? \weafford to lose al ofthem as users” > Remember th ye cing er best be Wis Paseo renin dato orl bly and pt more el i ging eeron=sstn thy wena. feral emote st. SS Fedloteer arc tatmeayres— oy ernest tes hector ct sto Eetietceatmanpeessosts store By sore atton to acions and espana tam en. OT oe har on Gene pct ont eget = song cpions im iReporting what you saw pe son at se afer at ech bene andthe lin sol ype up ‘ott ofthe main probes thy nd ary toupee hve cus Poe fete ‘ox on want wt compihenstve Report mrs I an acute suman, ay you van ene development te 0 eal of tetra ee sabe Sas eee eee Hersam example ofthe kind of notes I usually write: 2 Ee ee be one Athena tene me ptcy rye oe he 2 eel jn atone sane hy stan, hey eeiran ening toy Neca ny enty pts | eh ty ei ete yh sthenumteramcaeat stage Se apr oeeog Oana lta UT aaa) tm) a ao er Made mises. Bu ets ut tow How do you decide what to change? Review the results right av Peeters of ts jou soul ae ne dereoprien em 0 review een Arie meting, you should distrbute copes. whatever screens of sketches were tse, Yo 9 Trige—reviewing the problems peoples anit > Problem solvng—fguring ot ho ther Ii might seem that his would bea dict po tence earn members wholve been arguing about the ight wa todo tig al song ss gping to make this sesion ary dient? Just his, “The important things tht yu les om wy testing usally just mak ese, Tey ee anyone who watches the sessions ‘Also the experience of sexing your handnork hough omsns se os sages entirely new solutions for problems or etn sean ld And emer this is cyl process. 20 tee dost an Perfet solution. You just need to Figure out win)"Can this marriage be saved? atl th biggest question n eveyone’ ind especialy daring the Es Sow {ct sab “Are we sly he ight ak?™ Acthese debriefing meetings, youre always trying to igre out whether the par of the te that youle testing ean be made to work by tweaking it, or ifyou have to scrap it and take a whole diferent approach. Fr instance, iFsome user dot et ‘the whole ides of the ite does it mean thatthe basic concep is awed, o do you ust ave to change some ofthe wording? Hers my aver > Always consider tweaking firs. I's rae that site completly ofase bu ‘her's a tendency toe spooked by any bad user reuetions, particulary afer the frst round of esting. Before scrapping anything always stop and think, “Whats ‘he eas we could do ist might Fx he problenss were seeing?” If it seems ike « parca tweak has 2 reasonable chance of working, mock it up and test its soon 35 posible > Focus on specifi. Try to avid sweeping statements and focus onthe precise ‘sins where people seemed ogo astray. “They didnt scem to notice the nv ‘non wien they got othe second evel pages” fs a much more productive lace to begin problem solving than “The navigation didnt work.” One suggest ‘hat you should hink about ways you could make the navigation slightly more noticeable the other suggests you should start considering whole new rasigaion scheme, > Twcak; but verify. Remember, this cyl proces. Since youl be doing ‘nother lest son, you can afford to ry some meas before scraping anything. 7 ial Is ek a, liga arneee incense vk at problem has usually Been obvious to eeyone gn? ep on Te ray ans ob the ome to mention hess > in soliton, ad (tse ies oo ne ag Se cen Tepe Seciestgreate they need an outsider to announce what's seaty 9 MS base or instance, suppose tht when ou do ou way Jue chase io orgziz tn sie ane ann jtyand aes they're aving.a very tard sam spree logs: Or perhaps youve been bulinexrsomees istomers will want odo x andy bat whea jos van one oo ‘hey te apy with the way they already don znd se na say interested n doing ther online Ifyoutve gota deep-seated problem, x posts dieing mes ‘phe to finally face it Once t's out onthe abst tnanageable than seme when youre rot aking but > Remember: Its lost never too Ltt challenge sc sms. ik the bases doesnt necessarily mean changeg ceri ands thatthe soltion tothe problemi smpier b's tithe de ht he Bee thee um