When designing a new Website it can often be tempting to think outside the box, but there are pitfalls that need to be avoided to ensure your users aren’t left terminally confused.
Despite all this 3.0 talk, the Web technology is still in its infancy, and like all the technologies we take for granted, it needs time to mature.
Consider TV advertising. In the 50s it was simplistic and brash because advertisers simply didn’t know how people would respond to the medium and so subtlety went out the window. Now we see ads often of breathtaking quality but are left unsure of what we’re actually being sold, because advertisers have the confidence in the savviness of its audience.
The Web is less than 20 years old, and most of its users are still not savvy enough to handle change. They need logos and menus to be where they expect them to be, and they need sites to behave in a way they expect.
Sometimes the temptation to create revolutionary sites that function in new and innovative ways or employ subtle navigation techniques can be all-consuming. We all want a site that is different from the competition, but in the relative early stages of this medium, can we afford to lose users?
I’m not suggesting that all users are stupid, but they do need guidance because many of them are still - even if subconsciously - afraid that clicking the wrong thing could break their computer or result in the payment for an item they never ordered.
It can be very easy to patronise this audience and dumb down your Website in the process, so we as designers and developers need to take great care in balancing usability with innovation.
For now I think the golden rules have to be:
- keep the logo top left
- put the menu where it can always be seen no matter how long the page becomes
- request information via online forms only when that information is needed (ie: don’t ask for an email address unless you’re going to email that person)
- use sitemaps, search boxes and breadcrumb trails where appropriate
- avoid too much mouse movement (that means getting rid of that pull-down menu...you know who you are!)
