Summary Design Delays Graphics Navigation Chunks Content Distractions Futures References

---

Distractions

Root out any Web feature or technique that distracts the user.

• Use traditional and conservative Web designs: Alertbox (Mar 22, 1998): The Increasing Conservatism of Web Users

• Use style sheets to control formatting of pages. Alertbox (July 1, 1997): Effective Use of Style Sheets

• It would be very good to have a central editor for a Web site. Someone who would make sure the style and format were consistent and usable.

• Do not use frames. For most applications, the problems far outweigh the benefits. See Alertbox (Dec 1996): Why Frames Suck (Most of the Time) Problems:
  • Breaks the "page" metaphor that is at the heart of the Web.
  • Longer download time, since several files have to be loaded.
  • Harder to maintain -- many more files and more complex relationships between files.
  • Makes assumptions about screen real estate of user which may not be true.

• Periodically, make sure that links are still valid. Invalid links are a prime source of user dissatisfaction. Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox: Fighting linkrot (June 14, 1998)

• Stick with the default fonts, font sizes, and font colors unless you understand the consequences for usability of changing them. Alertbox (November 1996): Marginalia of Web Design

  For example, if you specify the font size as a specific number, you may make your page unreadable by visually disabled users. Alertbox (Oct 1996): Accessible Design for Users With Disabilities.

• Avoid changing the background color (except perhaps to white or some pale color) and be very careful about having a background design. If you are not careful, you can make your page unreadable.

• Avoid HTML-authoring tools, such as FrontPage. These tools can be useful for informal or internal pages, but they have big problems for pages that are designed for widespread distribution:
  • Hard to maintain -- the resulting HTML files are full of many tags that are inserted automatically.
  • Unnecessary tags -- StyleSheets are recommended rather than formatting each document individually.
  • Make it easy to break usability guidelines (for example, adopting weird color schemes or specifying font size).
  • Present one more level of complication; Web designers should know the HTML directly, even if they choose later to make use of FrontPage

---

Top of Page

---

Last updated: Mon Jun 17 13:17:18 PDT 2002