 HTML
Articles |
Featured
HTML Article |
HTML
Tips |
||
|
10 Website planning mistakesBy Steve Franklin Measured in Internet time, the Web is a fairly old and established technology. By now, you would think we'd know how to build Web sites with the balance of aesthetics and functionality that meets our audience's needs. Somehow, that isn't always the case. Numerous Web sites are still a punishment to the eye, or frustrate users' attempts to find information. Are these design flaws a necessary evil of Web design? Obviously Web sites have to make some trade-offs in order to deliver content and functionality in "Internet time" and on "Internet budgets" (a lot lower than they used to be). But "online design" and "good design" need not be opposites. Knowing what trade-offs you should make and how to make them can help you build a good Web site quickly, without sacrificing too much usability in the process. Of course, there are many layers of design, from
graphics to layout to information architecture to usability. But before
you can start refining the details, it's best to make sure you've cleared
your site of the ten most common flaws. If you know your Web site's target audience, that can help you decide where to invest your time and effort. For instance, if 93 percent of your users are Windows users running IE 4 or greater, that might influence the number of browsers you test against. If 85 percent of the users visiting your computer reference site own a PDA, it might make sense to add a section on PDAs to your existing content. If you don't know your market at all, you can't easily meet its demands. You may be wasting time on low-value activities, or missing out on useful enhancements to your site that would keep and grow your audience. Researching your market isn't as difficult as
it may sound. Although you may not have analysts to support you, you can
run surveys, analyze log files and ask for feedback. Popular log analysis
tools include Analog and WebTrends. You can find a more complete discussion
at WynSoft's Logfile page or the comprehensive GCN resource list. Some sites have not been tested sufficiently for various browser and platform configurations. Does that mean you should support every configuration out there? No—generally it's enough to support only the browsers of your target viewers. See my Effective Cross-Browser Development article for specific details. Also, check the Browser Compatibility Guide to learn which features are supported by popular browsers and how to select appropriate test configurations. The best approach to building compatible sites
is to write valid, standard code. Avoid relying on advanced or less conventional
technologies (applets, ActiveX, client-side VBScript) and your site will
be easier to maintain across browsers. In some cases, a unique design can pay off by distinguishing you from competing sites. But more often than not, users get frustrated at confusing interfaces and will go elsewhere. Knowing the standard conventions is important, so that even if you purposefully choose to go against the flow you can identify clear reasons for choosing that path. Sometimes, the demand for a new feature is enough to merit its inclusion on your site. Most of the time, however, you will want your Web site to be familiar and intuitive to your viewers. I can only think of a few cases where a site might suffer for being too standardized and conventional: * Highly interactive sites that demand some exploration
and thought. Trying to be too different is a much more common and significant problem. A few examples of nonstandard approaches that you should use with extreme caution (if at all): * Frames: Often abused, these make it easy for
users to get lost and are hard to bookmark properly. 4. Inconsistent Look and Feel A site's look and feel can be critical to its success, whether users feel it is visually pleasing or not. Although the current wisdom says that "a site succeeds or fails based on its content," a site can nevertheless fail simply for lacking a consistent appearance. Inconsistencies can be very confusing to your
readers. If the UI changes from page to page, users may wonder whether
they've discovered an old part of the site that has been discontinued,
or whether they're still on the same site at all. Small changes to the
menu bar and navigational layout can leave users wondering how to continue.
You also lose the power of branding if you start introducing different
themes and logos throughout your site. Remember that we're creatures of
habit and we get used to expecting things to be in the same place. Users visit most Web sites in order to obtain information. Ensuring that the content is up to date and adequately accurate is something that many sites quickly ignore. If your site is a daily news or review site, you won't gain much of a following if you only update once a week. Some sites need frequent updates (news, reviews, blogs) whereas others do not (dictionaries, online books, family pages). You should be looking at logfiles and analyzing readers' viewing patterns to adjust your update cycle. In Figure 1, the rapid reduction in hits in the days after an update indicate that your readers are quickly absorbing the information you put up. An even worse scenario is shown in Figure 2. In this example, your site is not being updated sufficiently to encourage readers to come back. For instance, if your site is only updated once a month, that may be too long of a period for readers to remember to come back. Another thing to consider is whether you may be
updating your site too quickly for your readers to keep up. If that's
the case, they could miss headlines or information as they're displaced
by new additions. Meanwhile, you might be breaking your back developing
information that is not needed or desired by your readers on such a frequent
basis. How much content is enough? There is no clear-cut answer to this question, because it depends on a number of factors. Is your site meant to convey small pieces of information on a regular basis (for example, a joke of the day site)? Or, do you intend to convey large quantities of information on an infrequent basis (as for an online tutorial on a specific subject)? One might think that a site can never have too much information, but that view can be quite wrong. There are two important factors to consider when producing content: * Topic Depth: How much detail is required to
satisfy the users? Too much detail and your effort may go unnoticed. Furthermore,
it may result in information overload for the reader. Conversely, too little content and your readers
will simply not be satisfied. Have you ever run into a movie review site
that only had a handful of movies? I have, and I never went back. Unfortunately,
generating content takes a lot of time and energy. Sometimes you can find
editors who are willing to volunteer their time in trade for publication
on your site. Now more than ever, determining acceptable download times has become a tricky subject because the number of objects on a page varies so greatly. Load times aren't solely a function of page and media size, either—queries against complex databases can slow download times much more than the page size in some cases. If you want to include modem users in your audience, you will want to stay under 40 KB in total size per page. This includes additional media that gets downloaded with your page, like images. Sometimes, large downloads are simply the fault of poor image optimization, excessive resolution, or general overuse of graphics. Large articles and chapters can also be broken up across pages to reduce the perceived download duration. In some cases, however, long downloads are necessary.
A site devoted to selling art online had better provide high-resolution
images of the paintings. Also, if a site is devoted to multimedia or interactive
topics, viewers visiting that site will expect some high-bandwidth eye
candy. In addition to overall site design, you need to think about its ongoing maintenance. The approach you take will depend greatly on the needs of your site and the number of people that will be involved in support and updates. If your site is complex and difficult to manage,
then you may be slower in performing updates, and you may also make more
mistakes. Database-driven sites can reduce the time it takes to update
a site but will add complexity to the way you serve your pages. Server-side
scripts and CSS can be used to maintain consistency throughout your site
but you must plan to have the same files included in each document. Sometimes,
the easiest approach is to edit files on your PC and FTP them to the server.
Keep things simple: readers will only judge your site by what they can
see. The need for Web site security is often underestimated, and security suffers from a lack of effort and planning. Smart Webmasters track CERT and BugTraq to find exploits for their current server configuration. Unfortunately, many developers store passwords and credit cards using weak (or no) encryption. They may leave common holes in their PHP or Perl/CGI scripts that allow hackers to directly modify the database or use system calls. Don't make these mistakes yourself. It's not uncommon for sites both large and small to be compromised by fairly simple exploits, sometimes giving unwanted access to confidential information. Your best solution to security problems: avoid information that needs security. Still, if you're asking for personal information from your users, you should understand that you're undertaking a serious responsibility. Also, use third party payment systems, use one-way
(irreversible) hashes to store passwords, use privacy statements, use
HTTPS/SSL, and write robust server-side code. While users may complain about advertising, most sites rely on serving ads to bring in revenue. Though ads are a necessary evil, there are ways to minimize the impact and disruption of the overall experience. Design your pages so that ads aren't intrusive. When ads disrupt the flow of information, as with ads in the middle of the page, half-way through an article, readers tend to get annoyed and their perception of the site's quality drops. Pop-ups are a very unpopular form of advertising with most readers. Unfortunately, pop-up ads also tend to pay the most money per CPM. Also, consider how many advertisements are too many. Are you overwhelming your visitors? Also, pay attention to the design and architecture of the ads themselves. Advertisements can slow down the loading of your page, particularly if they're very media-heavy, or if they're served from a slow and overloaded third-party host. Finally, consider whether your ads are really
providing sufficient revenue to justify their inclusion on your pages.
With the reduction in advertising revenue being experienced industry-wide,
it might be worth exploring alternate and more reliable sources of revenue.
Unfortunately, as yet there is not much indication that donations through
a service like PayPal or the Amazon Honor System generate consistent revenue
for many sites. Though I've listed a number of common mistakes here, Web sites don't have to be perfect, nor do they have to follow any single set of golden rules. The important thing is to devote your energy to those aspects of your site that matter most to you. Your goals may be focused on maximizing loyalty, hits, revenue, quality, accessibility, or any combination of factors. Once you know your goals and agree on your audience, your energy should be focused into making good design decisions that meet your objectives. Hard and fast rules like "don't use frames" aren't going to apply to every site of course. But whenever you decide to go against convention, be sure you are doing it for the right reasons, and that your organization will benefit from the design decision. |
|
| Home
| Contact © Copyright 2006 Htmltag.org All Rights Reserved |
