Interface Design
Introduction
Make your Web pages free-standing
Hypertext links allow users to access a single
Web page that may be located in the "middle" of a Web site.
This usually means that the headers and footers of Web pages
are more informative and elaborate than printed pages. It
would be absurd to repeat the copyright, author, and date
of a book at the bottom of every page, but individual Web
pages often need such information because a single Web page
may be the only part of your site some users ever see.
Who
Who is speaking? Whether the page is from an individual author
or an institution, always tell your reader who created the
Web page.
What
What is the title of this page? For several reasons peculiar
to the Web this basic editorial element is especially crucial.
The document title is often the first thing browsers of World
Wide Web documents see as the page comes up. Additionally,
the page title will become the text of a browser "bookmark"
if the user chooses to add your page to their list of URLs.
A misleading or ambiguous title, or a title that contains
more technical gibberish than English, will not help the user
remember why they bookmarked your page.
When
Date every Web page, and change the date whenever the document
is updated. This is especially important in long or complex
online documents that are updated regularly, but that may
not look different enough to signal a change in content to
occasional readers.
Where
Consistently state the title, the author, the author's institutional
affiliations, the revision date, and provide at least one
link to a local home page in every Web page in your system.
Put the "home page" URL on a few major pages in your site.
Include these basic elements and you will have gone 90% of
the way toward providing your readers with an understandable
Web user interface.
Build clear navigation aids
Clear, consistent icons, graphic identity schemes, and graphic
or text-based overview and summary screen can give the user
confidence that they can find what they are looking for without
wasting time.
Users should always be able to easily return to your home
page, and to other major navigation points in your local site.
These basic links, that should be present on every page of
your site, can be text or graphic buttons that both provide
basic navigation links, and help create the graphic identity
that signals the user that they are still within your site
domain.
Avoid dead-end pages
Every Web page should contain at least one link. "Dead-end"
pages -- pages with no links to any other local page in the
site -- are only a frustration to users.
Keep it simple and consistent
Users are not impressed with complexity that seems gratuitous,
especially users who may be depending on your site for timely
and accurate course-related information. Your interface metaphors
should be simple, familiar and logical to the audience --
if you want a metaphor for information design, choose a book
or a library, not a spacecraft or a television set. The best
information designs are the ones most users never notice.
Example
My personal
Web site.
My current
course Web site.
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