web design
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web design | Graphic Web Design |
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Do the Same As Everybody ElseDo the same as everybody else?! Listen, this comes straight from Jakob Nielsen, the "guru of web page usability" according to the New York Times. It's a principle of usability, rather than graphic web design, but it must be incorporated for your site to not scare off users. Admittedly, Nielsen's site is easy to use, but it's also an eyesore. (Part of this stems from the fact that Nielsen apparently hates to wear glasses, because he finds small fonts offensive, so his site is in a gigantic font.) But you, the web designer, should value his advice. He's done a lot of research to determine and validate Jakob's Law of the Web User Experience: "Users spend most of their time on other sites, so that's where they form their expectations for how the Web works." Make sense? So, if other sites use the word "home" to mean "go to the front page", you shouldn't use "home" to mean "home in on great values," or something equally ludicrous. Same goes with images and icons. The shopping cart is ubiquitous - don't use a "shopping bag" just to be different. It confuses the user, and if the user is confused, they'll just leave and find what they're looking for elsewhere. Maybe someday people will all flock to a new design idea, but unless you're The Big Man on Campus, don't try to be a trendsetter. Amazon and Ebay will be the ones that revolutionize the web, not you. (Sorry!) |