User Friendly

User Friendly Website - Practical Tips

We design our websites for the web user – We want to attract the user, keep the web user interested and eventually turn the web user in an actual client. To achieve this goal we want to point out the following practical tips in creating a user friendly website.

Balance and Layout

The main focus of a user entering your website will be at the top left of the page, gradually moving focus to the right of the page. A further interesting fact is that today’s web users are more focused on the text on the page, more so than images or graphics. It is therefore important to grab the users initial focus at entering point, and then keep the focus with the text throughout the rest of the page. Balance also ensures a visually appealing page - it will make your page easy to navigate, read and find the necessary items. The main aim of balance is to create a page that flows.

Simplicity

Simplify your website! At first glance, the web user wants to understand your website and find what he/she is looking for. Unnecessary visual elements may cause confusion and important items should be highlighted to immediately stand out. White space on the page is visually pleasing and easier for user to differentiate items/topics and makes navigation quick and easy. Complex websites with overpowering visual effects and cluttered content will leave the user confused and stressed in their attempt to decode information on the website. The result – the user will exit your website in a hurry!

Fonts – Size & Type

The size and type of the font will have an effect! Web users want to read the information with ease and not decipher the text, at the same time we don’t want the user to step back and read from across the room. San-serif fonts such as Arial and Verdana, with sizes no smaller than 10pt and no larger than 14pt are popular choices for on-screen reading.

Clean Backgrounds

A background is exactly that – a background! Be subtle and refrain from using textures and bright colours. Your background serves as backdrop for the main focus of the page. Background textures and graphics are distracting, and the more you add, the less noticeable your text and images become. A white background with black text will always result in a crisp, clean look and is easy to read. If you want to use colours, ensure that the colours will contrast with the colour of the text - i.e. using a lighter background with darker text. Darker and bright colours such as red and yellow causes visual fatigue - the reader will loose focus and will not continue reading the page.

Graphics

All our website are custom designed – this means that the graphics on your website will be unique, taking into account your own company profile and target market. We can therefore integrate all your design elements in a uniform format throughout your website, incorporating your branding – this makes the website visually appealing, easy to browse, and creates a lasting impression on the user.

Graphics are often overused – cluttering the page with graphics. This serves no purpose other than increasing the loading time of the page. A consistent use of graphic style ensures that the user becomes familiar with the graphics and anticipates seeing them, enabling easy navigation.

Easy Navigation

This is an absolute must! The user must be able to find the required information quickly and easily. The user is visiting for website to gain information, if they can’t find it they will leave the website. Current practice is to place a toolbar across the top of the page or on the left hand side of the page. A well placed toolbar or navigation tool creates a sense of familiarity and facilitates quick and easy navigation.

Text Readability

You have a lot of information to share with your user – It is important to share and display this information effectively, by making your pages easy to read by breaking up blocks and creating short paragraphs. Highlight key points with clearly defined headings and subheadings also make for more effective readability.

Most users first scan a page looking for the relevant topic information and will then only read all information. Therefore highlighting key words or phrases by properly formatting content is essential.

Scrolling

Horizontal scrolling is disorienting and annoying – users will find this frustrating.

Vertical scrolling is the best option, keeping the scrolling down to a minimum – users won’t scroll down endlessly and important information will be lost should they need to do so. Consider moving larger blocks of information to another page and provide links. It is also important to provide the key information at the top of the page – if this is the relevant information the user is looking for, he/she will take the time to scroll down.

A Fast and Slick Website

Users want to make contact without hassle and in the quickest possible time. Ensure that your pages load quickly – all users get impatient when it takes too long to load a page. Eliminate unnecessary graphics and reduce the use of scripts and in-line styles. You need to make an immediate impression so that the user is enthusiastic and wants to see and read more, otherwise he/she will move on to the next website.