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Web Design Guidelines.



Title:                  Web Design Guidelines
Author:                 Moisés Daniel Díaz Toledano
Web:                    http://www.moisesdaniel.com/wri/wdg.html

Email:                  moises@moisesdaniel.com

Web Design Guidelines.

Internet is a media so much rich in possibilities like in containing. The competitiveness
that exist in the net of nets is enormous due, between many reasons, to the relative small
investment that its required to create a website. A hard (difficult) navigation could make
us therefore lose a big amount of our possible clients-users. If we add to this that the
construction of a website is carried out with languages that facilitate an enormous
flexibility, we could see the great importance that has to specify some design principles
or guidelines for the development of our webs.

    •    Fitts' Law. This is practically the only rule not subjective that is established
         inside the interfaces design field and it makes reference to the characteristics that
         have to have the objects so we can press them (or rather, to interact with them):
         position in which they are, size of the same, and an additional characteristic, the
         'expresivity' of them. I want to making understanded with this last concept that
         an object will be more 'visible' (as for the interaction with the user) if this
         insinuates or express their existence like interface's object and not like mere
         information. An example is the change that suffer certain web links when we are
         above of them with the pointer of the mouse (for example changing its color).
         You could think that all the aforementioned for the Fitts' Law is absolutely
         evident, and in fact generally it is, but it is still more surprising the great amount
         of times that these principles are not applied, achieving therefore that the
         usability of our interface is clearly committed (worsening the usability of our
         interface).

    •    Give feedback to the user. There are many cases in which an action of the user
         implies modifications in the application that don't have a visual correspondence
         to show to the user, and if this change exists It doesn't give any information
         about the executed action. Imagine that we connect with a website suggestions
         page, and upon completing the whole information that requests us and sending
         it, this page appears again empty or perhaps we are returned to the main page of
         saying website. The user would not know if the suggestion has been receptioned,
         or if what really happened is that the page was bad programmed and upon
         pressing the button for shipping it load the same form again (or another). Giving
         return information to the user about the actions that carries out is a fundamental
         point in web design, and It is forgotten in too much occasions. Fortunately in the
         web world, the main action carry out by users is pressing web links and
         downloading files, both of them have immediate consequences. Giving feedback
         to user is a secure way to get consistent applications and high usability.



© 2001 Moisés Daniel Díaz.    Web: www.moisesdaniel.com ,      Email: moises@moisesdaniel.com

                                             pág. 1
Web Design Guidelines.


    •   User's experience reutilization. It consists of expose the user in the face of the
        acquaintance. At this moment It is proliferating the use of certain elements that
        give to the web much flexibility and wealth (like Flash). In this interfaces seem
        to prevail the visual effect, and the realization of all type of stylistic twirls on the
        ease of use, succeeding in confusing the user. In the web environment is
        particularly little reasonable to create interfaces that require excessive learning
        cuves since any difficulty presented to users produces a considerable loss of
        users, that increases competition's visits(don't forget the enormous proliferation
        that has lived and it will continue living the creation of all type of websites). The
        use of not standard browsing structures is one of the most serious error that we
        could make. We should also know that certain exceptions are plenary justified
        how they are the creation of websites in which prevail the form to the content or
        in which competition hardly exists. Under my point of view if there is an
        important point in the web desing development is in fact this, so we must to
        have it always present.

    •   Uses of the Scroll. It is a good idea to make all browsing elements and important
        information showed to the user nothing else they loaded our pages without
        needing to make [scroll]. In this way, we made sure that important information
        is always exposed to all our clients-users.

    •   Sentences and paragraphs. The great majority of the users reads the minimum
        and indispensable text of our web in order to obtain that they are looking for .
        Including long sentences and big paragraphs hinder this activity, loosing
        usability (and therefore visits!!). Evidently we could not apply the previously
        said to documents in html format, they are already articles, books, etc.
        Nevertheless I think that exists a tendency that is going to be consolidating, and
        it is the idea of differentiating between what it is the own web application
        (objects' set that allow us for communicating with the server) and everything
        else that we obtain as a result of the interaction with this application. This
        posture introduces a conceptual wealth differentiating between application and
        information, having numerous advantages. On the other hand it introduce a
        serious inconvenience (that it could be argument more than enough in order to
        discard it) and is that we need an additional program for the reading of the
        obtained documents (for example the Adobe Acrobat Reader) that generally
        implies more requirements to the user (and this is accustomed to almost always
        go in decrementing the number of visits!!). Knowing our possible clients it is a
        fundamental point to the hour of taking these decisions of design.

    •   Images. Due to the limitations of the width of band are not very advisable load
        our pages excessively with images, and if we must to do ti, a very interesting
        technique consists in creating thumbnails (images of very reduced size that upon
        pressing opens another window in which the original image is loaded). In
        general in the thumbnails is shown the enough information so that an user
        decides if it is useful obtain the original image or not.

    •   Band's Width. The web universe offers many interactive and multimedia
        possibilities but it is necessary to be conscious that many users have a small
        band width and that they therefore could need a big amount of second in loading

© 2001 Moisés Daniel Díaz.   Web: www.moisesdaniel.com ,        Email: moises@moisesdaniel.com

                                             pág. 2
Web Design Guidelines.


        our pages. The economy, and the simplicity continues being capital importance
        norms in web design.

Conclusions.

Like conclusion I would like to stand out some of the principles previously exposed,
most of they are of easy understanding and conception, but with too much frequency we
forget them , so keep in mind: user's experience reutilization, make easy that the user
use the interactuable objects (bellboy, connections, [etc]), and don't overload your pages
excessively.

References.

    •   Web design and Usability, http://www.usability.gov/guidelines/.
    •   Design Fundamentals, http://www.pantos.org/atw/basics.html.
    •   Design Guidelines for the World Wide Web,
        http://www.coedu.usf.edu/inst_tech/resources/WWWDESG_1.htm.
    •   Top ten mistakes in web design, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html.




© 2001 Moisés Daniel Díaz.   Web: www.moisesdaniel.com ,    Email: moises@moisesdaniel.com

                                           pág. 3

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  • 1. Web Design Guidelines. Title: Web Design Guidelines Author: Moisés Daniel Díaz Toledano Web: http://www.moisesdaniel.com/wri/wdg.html Email: moises@moisesdaniel.com Web Design Guidelines. Internet is a media so much rich in possibilities like in containing. The competitiveness that exist in the net of nets is enormous due, between many reasons, to the relative small investment that its required to create a website. A hard (difficult) navigation could make us therefore lose a big amount of our possible clients-users. If we add to this that the construction of a website is carried out with languages that facilitate an enormous flexibility, we could see the great importance that has to specify some design principles or guidelines for the development of our webs. • Fitts' Law. This is practically the only rule not subjective that is established inside the interfaces design field and it makes reference to the characteristics that have to have the objects so we can press them (or rather, to interact with them): position in which they are, size of the same, and an additional characteristic, the 'expresivity' of them. I want to making understanded with this last concept that an object will be more 'visible' (as for the interaction with the user) if this insinuates or express their existence like interface's object and not like mere information. An example is the change that suffer certain web links when we are above of them with the pointer of the mouse (for example changing its color). You could think that all the aforementioned for the Fitts' Law is absolutely evident, and in fact generally it is, but it is still more surprising the great amount of times that these principles are not applied, achieving therefore that the usability of our interface is clearly committed (worsening the usability of our interface). • Give feedback to the user. There are many cases in which an action of the user implies modifications in the application that don't have a visual correspondence to show to the user, and if this change exists It doesn't give any information about the executed action. Imagine that we connect with a website suggestions page, and upon completing the whole information that requests us and sending it, this page appears again empty or perhaps we are returned to the main page of saying website. The user would not know if the suggestion has been receptioned, or if what really happened is that the page was bad programmed and upon pressing the button for shipping it load the same form again (or another). Giving return information to the user about the actions that carries out is a fundamental point in web design, and It is forgotten in too much occasions. Fortunately in the web world, the main action carry out by users is pressing web links and downloading files, both of them have immediate consequences. Giving feedback to user is a secure way to get consistent applications and high usability. © 2001 Moisés Daniel Díaz. Web: www.moisesdaniel.com , Email: moises@moisesdaniel.com pág. 1
  • 2. Web Design Guidelines. • User's experience reutilization. It consists of expose the user in the face of the acquaintance. At this moment It is proliferating the use of certain elements that give to the web much flexibility and wealth (like Flash). In this interfaces seem to prevail the visual effect, and the realization of all type of stylistic twirls on the ease of use, succeeding in confusing the user. In the web environment is particularly little reasonable to create interfaces that require excessive learning cuves since any difficulty presented to users produces a considerable loss of users, that increases competition's visits(don't forget the enormous proliferation that has lived and it will continue living the creation of all type of websites). The use of not standard browsing structures is one of the most serious error that we could make. We should also know that certain exceptions are plenary justified how they are the creation of websites in which prevail the form to the content or in which competition hardly exists. Under my point of view if there is an important point in the web desing development is in fact this, so we must to have it always present. • Uses of the Scroll. It is a good idea to make all browsing elements and important information showed to the user nothing else they loaded our pages without needing to make [scroll]. In this way, we made sure that important information is always exposed to all our clients-users. • Sentences and paragraphs. The great majority of the users reads the minimum and indispensable text of our web in order to obtain that they are looking for . Including long sentences and big paragraphs hinder this activity, loosing usability (and therefore visits!!). Evidently we could not apply the previously said to documents in html format, they are already articles, books, etc. Nevertheless I think that exists a tendency that is going to be consolidating, and it is the idea of differentiating between what it is the own web application (objects' set that allow us for communicating with the server) and everything else that we obtain as a result of the interaction with this application. This posture introduces a conceptual wealth differentiating between application and information, having numerous advantages. On the other hand it introduce a serious inconvenience (that it could be argument more than enough in order to discard it) and is that we need an additional program for the reading of the obtained documents (for example the Adobe Acrobat Reader) that generally implies more requirements to the user (and this is accustomed to almost always go in decrementing the number of visits!!). Knowing our possible clients it is a fundamental point to the hour of taking these decisions of design. • Images. Due to the limitations of the width of band are not very advisable load our pages excessively with images, and if we must to do ti, a very interesting technique consists in creating thumbnails (images of very reduced size that upon pressing opens another window in which the original image is loaded). In general in the thumbnails is shown the enough information so that an user decides if it is useful obtain the original image or not. • Band's Width. The web universe offers many interactive and multimedia possibilities but it is necessary to be conscious that many users have a small band width and that they therefore could need a big amount of second in loading © 2001 Moisés Daniel Díaz. Web: www.moisesdaniel.com , Email: moises@moisesdaniel.com pág. 2
  • 3. Web Design Guidelines. our pages. The economy, and the simplicity continues being capital importance norms in web design. Conclusions. Like conclusion I would like to stand out some of the principles previously exposed, most of they are of easy understanding and conception, but with too much frequency we forget them , so keep in mind: user's experience reutilization, make easy that the user use the interactuable objects (bellboy, connections, [etc]), and don't overload your pages excessively. References. • Web design and Usability, http://www.usability.gov/guidelines/. • Design Fundamentals, http://www.pantos.org/atw/basics.html. • Design Guidelines for the World Wide Web, http://www.coedu.usf.edu/inst_tech/resources/WWWDESG_1.htm. • Top ten mistakes in web design, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html. © 2001 Moisés Daniel Díaz. Web: www.moisesdaniel.com , Email: moises@moisesdaniel.com pág. 3