Making your site more user-friendly
By Ellen Agger, Webmaster, Alzheimer Society
of Canada
September 17, 2001
All too often we look at our Web site only from our own perspective –
what does our organization want to say and how do we want to present that
information? But it’s critical that our sites give visitors want they
want and need. So start thinking like your visitors – then take a long,
hard look at your site to ensure your updates or major site redesign does
in fact meet the needs of the range of audiences who visit your site.
Recently, the Alzheimer Society of Canada did just that. In redesigning our
site (see Time
to redesign your web site?), we began to think like our visitors as
much as we could. We also spoke directly with a sampling of our visitors,
including our two major audiences – caregivers and people with early
stage dementia – to find out what worked for them on the current site
and what needed improvement.(1) The feedback is now telling us it was worth the
work.
Here are a few ideas that can make your site easy to get around and leave
your visitors with a good experience:
1. Navigation smarts
If visitors can’t figure out how to get around your site, they won’t
stay long. The Web has been around long enough now that certain conventions
help visitors know where they are:
- Put the main navigation bar on top of the page or on the left –
that’s where people expect to look for it.
- Link your organization’s logo or name to the home page.
- If you use graphical navigation buttons, add a text version at the bottom
of the page so those who use text readers or who choose not to view graphics
can still see them.
- Use "alt tags" (in the html code) for graphics with a clear
text description that’s visible when the visitor runs their mouse pointer
over each graphic or uses a text reader.
- Use a consistent colour for links that jives somewhat closely with the
standard recognized by many Web users: blue for the link colour and maroon
for the visited link colour (once it’s been clicked on); underline
links for quick recognition.
- Use a consistent page design throughout the site so your visitors will
learn where to look for information and navigation cues.
You can provide tools that will help your visitors know where they are in your
site. This will help them stay oriented and makes their visit successful.
- Always provide a site map that a visitor can quickly scan to see what’s
in your site and how each page relates to others.
- Breadcrumbs/path: Some sites (like the CharityVillage site) use this
cue to let you know which page you’re on and in which section the page
sits. For example, the breadcrumb "trail" or path for this page
is: Path: Main Street : Library : Research Articles : Feature Article
- Think about the title you give each page. Titles are important to search
engine listings, but can also help visitors know where they are in the site.
For example, the Calendar of Events page on the Alzheimer Society of Canada
site is found in the News and Events section and is entitled "Alzheimer
Society of Canada - News and Events: Calendar of Events."
2. Clear language and design
To ensure your site is easy to use, it helps to know how visitors read online.
These tips will help you make language and design decisions that increase the
usability of your site:
- Conciseness: According to Jakob Nielsen, Web usability expert, users read
25 per cent more slowly on screen than print materials. Write concisely
– aim for 50 per cent fewer words than you’d use on paper.
- Scanability: Nielsen estimates that 79 per cent of users scan the words
on screen rather than read them. To help visitors scan your Web pages more
quickly, use these writing approaches to guide the visitor and break up
text:
- one idea per paragraph
- headings and sub-headings
- topic sentences
- bulleted lists when appropriate
- bold text (avoid the use of long strings of italicized words)
- appropriate graphics
- Readability: Understand the reading levels of your visitors and tailor
your language to those audiences. East End Literacy’s Clear Language
and Design project provides an online reading effectiveness tool so you
can measure the reading level of your materials.(2)
Although it’s not possible to totally control the final look of your
Web site because of the range of computers and Web browsers that your visitors
use, these general tips will help you present the text in the most readable
way:
- Consider choosing a sans serif typeface, such as Verdana, Arial or Helvetica,
for your text for easier reading on screen (this point is still being debated).
- Choose a font size that’s not too big or too small (users can override
your choice, but know your audiences and the likely default font sizes they
will use in the most popular Web browsers).
- Make the lines of text neither too short nor too long for easier scanning.
- Use a background colour that contrasts highly with the font colour (black
text on white background is the easiest to read; avoid confusing background
graphics).
- Graphics: The typical visitor will likely start scrolling down the page
even before all the graphics have appeared. Create graphics that are fast
to download. There are ways to compress complex graphics and photos so the
file sizes are smaller and faster to download.
3. Visitor-friendly features
A few additional features will enhance your site’s usability:
- Printer-friendly version: If your site is full of information that your
visitors may want to print for future reference or to share with others, offer
a "printer-friendly" version of key pages. These will provide the
content from the page but can be programmed to leave the navigation buttons
and graphic headers out, making a page that’s faster to print. Be sure
to include your organization’s name (and perhaps contact information)
along with copyright information for credit and protection, and the date the
page was last reviewed and revised.
- E-mail this page to a friend: If you expect your visitors will want to tell
their friends and colleagues about useful pages they found on your site, you
can add some programming to let them do this easily.
- Site search engine: Nielsen has studied how people use search engines within
sites. His research shows that they’re "the user's lifeline for
mastering complex websites." They are most effective when offered as
a simple search box on the home page.
- HTML text: If you want visitors to be able to read the content on your site,
present the information on standard HTML pages. If, however, you expect them
to print off a page to read it offline (and perhaps fill out a form offline),
and if it’s important that you control the printed look of the page exactly,
use a PDF format. However, these require the use of a browser "plug-in"
software program, Adobe Acrobat Reader, so be sure your content requires this
PDF format before you make your visitor jump through the hoop of downloading
the free Acrobat Reader.
A discussion of technology accessibility issues for people with a variety
of disabilities is out of the scope of this article. However, there are a number
of resources that will help you design your site to be accessible to a wider
range of visitors. See the Resources list below.
Resources:
Footnote:
1. While talking to and surveying your visitors can give you useful information,
if you have the resources to observe people’s surfing behaviour on your
site, that will give you more useful information, according to Jakob Neilsen.
Ellen Agger is Webmaster at the Alzheimer Society of Canada. You can
reach her at: webmaster@alzheimer.ca.
