Usability Tips
There are many other ways you can improve the usability of your website. BCC encourages you to also pay attention to these other methods of page design.
- Use headings, lists and consistent structure to convey document structure and use them according to specification. (Reference: W3C: 3.5)
- Use terminology that is familiar to your audience.
- Choose color schemes that provide sufficient contrast between text and background. Ensure that all information conveyed with color is also available without color.
- Establish a primary navigation plan for your site and be consistent on every page. Your reader should be able to easily navigate your site.
- Include an easy path back to your site's home page
- Try to keep line lengths from exceeding screen width. You may want to format text using Cascading Style Sheets or using a table to preserve structure of tabular information.
- Pay attention to good graphic design issues such as use of "white space," use of graphics, rules, and fonts, minimizing clutter.
- Minimize the use of large graphics. Try to keep the total of all images below 100k on every page.
- Avoid opening links in new browser windows unless you control the size of the new window to make sure that it does not cover any other windows.
- Use relative font sizes
- Clearly label all non-HTML formatted documents such as PDF files, streaming video or audio files, multimedia files, MS Word and Excel documents, etc. Provide a link to adequate instructions for downloading necessary plug-ins and software for accessing this information.
Example: “This audio clip may be played using RealPlayer. You may download this software for free at www.realnetworks.com to play this file. A text transcript of this clip is also available.”
Links:
- Useit.com: Jakob Nielsen’s Website
http://www.useit.com/ - Usability News
http://www.usabilitynews.org/ - Optimal Web Design
http://psychology.wichita.edu/optimalweb/
Books:
- Don’t Make me think, By Steve Krug