Usability of Content
When we refer to content we are generally talking about information or text.
However on a music web site, this could be a combination of text and MP3 or Real
Audio files. On an on-line art gallery, this could mean a combination of text
and images. Content should be organized in easily digestible chunks. The visitor
to a page in your site will generally decide in less than 30 seconds whether to
stay or leave so it is important that your content be easily grasped on a visceral
level.
Don’t Assume that Your Content Will Be Accessed Sequentially
If you web site contains multi-page articles, don’t assume that the user will
access the pages in sequential order. It’s a good idea to put a small paragraph
at the top of each page of the article giving a brief synopsis and links back
to the first page of the article. You should always keep in mind that any page
on your site may be the first page a visitor to your site may encounter.
Provide Multiple Views on Your Content
Generally, you should split up multi-page articles or content into sections.
This speeds up download time. Faster download time improves the overall perception
of your web site’s usability. Many people will prefer to print the information
of your web site and read it off-line. If you have ever tried to do this, you
have probably encountered the frustrated experience of having to print each page
on at a time or worse printing the article only to find out that the text on the
right hand side has been cut off. You can accommodate these visitors by providing
a print view that combines all of the content in your multi-page article into
one long page. The print view strips out all of the extraneous information such
as banner ads and navigation bars. It also formats the text so that it will print
properly on an 8.5 x 11 inch page.
User Friendly Forms
Forms offer a way for you to provide interactive content for your web site
visitors. For example, real-estate web site can have a form that allows customers
to pre-qualify for a mortgage or calculate monthly payments. Almost all web sites
can benefit from a customer feedback form. A user-friendly form has the following
characteristics:
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The form is self explanatory- the form inherently require little
or no instructions. |
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You should ask for the minimum amount of personal information
as possible. |
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If you need to ask for personal information, then you should
provide the web site visitor with a clear and concise privacy policy. |
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If the form requires any form of credit card payment then you
need to run it from a secure server and clearly state this. In addition, you should
provide a page that gives the customer feedback as to exactly what they are selecting,
and how much it will cost. They should be given the option to submit the form
or go back and make corrections. |
Creating well-behaved user-friendly multi-page forms requires a great deal
of skill on the part of your web site design service. Here are some additional
requirements for multi-page forms with high usability:
The customer
should never have to fill in the same information twice!
This means that your web site designer needs to know how to create a form that
will remember what information you fill in on previous pages of the form.
The form
must be well behaved under all circumstances.
For example, you should never get the following message if you hit the back button:
"Page Expired Please Reload the Page by Hitting the Refresh Button on Your Browser".
The form
should have focus.
Think of a multi-page form like a tunnel where you guide the user through the
form, while at the same time providing a clear exit. The first page of the form
should have your normal site wide navigation. Subsequent pages should have no
extraneous elements (i.e. no banner adds, navigation or links that are not directly
related to the form). The only links should be forward or backward through the
form, links to instructions and a clearly marked exit.
The form
needs to provide clear feedback.
The customer needs to know where they are in process. They should also be shown
what information they have filled in so far and have the opportunity to change
it.
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