Jakob Nielsen outlines the Ten Most Violated Homepage Design Guidelines in his latest Alertbox. These cover the ten usability mistakes that about two-thirds of corporate websites make. So this list is defintely worth paying attention to.
He goes into much greater detail about each item, but the top ten are....
# Emphasize what your site offers that's of value to users and how your services differ from those of key competitors
# Use a liquid layout that lets users adjust the homepage size
# Use color to distinguish visited and unvisited links
# Use graphics to show real content, not just to decorate your homepage
# Include a tag line that explicitly summarizes what the site or company does
# Make it easy to access anything recently featured on your homepage
# Include a short site description in the window title
# Don't use a heading to label the search area; instead use a "Search" button to the right of the box
# With stock quotes, give the percentage of change, not just the points gained or lost
# Don't include an active link to the homepage on the homepage
Those are some great points. Thanks for the link. I would definitely have to agree with what he outlined. As I have surfed the internet I have enjoyed those sites that follow these suggestions more than others.
Comments
Educational Child Toys
Those are some great points. Thanks for the link. I would definitely have to agree with what he outlined. As I have surfed the internet I have enjoyed those sites that follow these suggestions more than others.
Posted by: Educational Child Toys | November 11, 2003 01:08 PM