Too Much (or Too Little) Design
Almost everyone has seen a website that was packed with too many images and information. The page has so many colorful images laid out that the visitor must scroll down for what seems like days in order to get to the bottom of the page. All of this information seems to be displayed without any organization whatsoever. Other sites don’t any design at all Websites, much like women’s skirts, should be long enough to cover the subject and short enough to be interesting. The visitor’s first scan of a website should tell them a few pieces of crucial information. First, they should know who runs the page and what the page is all about. They should know where they can go to find answers to their question and how to contact the company, if need be.
If the user doesn’t know the answers to these questions, the site has too little design and content. If the user is bombarded by many images without organization, and links that don’t seem to go anywhere specifically, the site has the opposite problem: too much design.
Considering All Users
Another common website mistake is forgetting that there are many kinds of users out there who surf the Web. Not everyone has a high speed Internet connection. Not everyone has a fast, new computer possible of processing a large amount of data. There are people with disabilities who surf the Web, users who can’t, or don’t, want to use Web complimentary programs like Adobe Reader, Flash, and JavaScript. There are users who have small monitors, surf the Web from their mobile phones, or go online from a public location like the library. Each of these users is a potential customer and valued visitor that must be considered.
Bandwidth is an important area to consider. There are many different kinds of Internet service that users can get in their homes and businesses. Some users are able to afford and get the high speed connections that come with DSL and cable. DSL, however, can be problematic for rural users because of the limitations of the phone lines used to transmit data. Cable TV may not be available in all areas, and is still fairly costly. This is why many people still rely on dial-up access to get online. Dial-up goes through traditional phone lines, is much slower, and means that users can’t take or make phone calls while they’re online, unless the household has two separate phone lines. Dial-up users don’t appreciate having to wait for days in order for Flash animation, large pictures, sound files, or JavaScript applications to load. If a page is too slow, these users can probably find a page elsewhere that loads much more quickly.
Some visitors may also have disabilities. A deaf person may not have a problem with a site, unless the site depends heavily on sound files. A blind person, however, may run into big problems if a webmaster as not taken blindness into consideration when designing the site. Those who are blind or have poor vision usually rely on screen reader software, which read web pages aloud, in order to surf the Web.
Screen readers can only read text. They can’t read text that appears in pictures or Flash animations. For that reason, webmasters should be sure to use as much text as possible in their sites, and use alt text for every single image on the page, no matter how small or trivial the image may seem. Alt text gives users with disabilities a text description of what the picture is, which can be read by screen readers.
Minding Fold Lines
The term “fold line” comes from the world of newspapers, but applies similarly to websites. Traditional-sized newspapers are long and generally come folded in half. When a paper is displayed on the racks, the first thing passers-bys see is the upper half of the first page. Everyone who picks up a paper will see information on this top half, but not everyone will take the time to see the bottom half. Newspapers know this, so they put their most important information on the top half of the paper, above the fold line.
Web pages work the same way. If a user is just scanning a page, they won’t take the time to see what’s at the bottom. For that reason, web site design dictates that the most valuable information in each page should be displayed on the top part of the page. The “fold line” in web design refers not to an actual fold, but to the place on the page where the page is cut off and the user must scroll down in order to see the rest of the page.
This fold line can change dramatically as a result of the different kinds of computer monitors that people use. Again, most people who surf the Web still use older, smaller monitors. Since newer, larger monitors like widescreen or LCD monitors are much more expensive, their use is not particularly widespread. Because of this, pages should be designed with smaller screens in mind. A larger screen will display more information, but be sure and keep the most important things at the very, very top. Some web editor programs will allow web designers to see the fold line for different sizes and resolutions of a computer screen.
Here’s another important note about scrolling. Users, in general, hate to scroll. They don’t like to scroll down very much, but they most certainly hate scrolling to the side. Side scrolling is easily avoidable by makings some easy design choices and is a great way to keep customers happy with the look and feel of a site. The more websites can avoid scrolling, the better.
Clearpath Technology is a SEO Firm providing Search Engine Optimization, Link Building and Internet Marketing services. For more details, visit http://www.clearpathtechnology.com
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