5 Tips For A User-Friendly Website

You’ve all dealt with this problem. You go to a website, and you don’t know what to do next. Where should you click? What is this site about? Where’s the information I’m looking for? Most people won’t stay on a page longer than 8 seconds if they are confused, so make sure you follow these 5 tips to creating a more user-friendly website.

TIP 1: Create a Clear Visual Hierarchy

Use headlines to show what is important and what’s not. The size and placement of your headline help user decide where to look. Larger headlines draw your attention while smaller headlines help you scan a page quickly and efficiently.

Very Important

Less Important

Much Less Important

TIP 2: Stick with what Works

If there is a standard, use it. People are familiar with how it works so they feel comfortable with it. One example is to keep your logo in the upper left hand corner. And make it link to the HOME page.

TIP 3: Segment Your Page Clearly

Dividing the page into clearly defined areas allows users to decide quickly which areas of the page to focus on and which areas they can safely ignore. Since people scan pages, they will only ‘see’ the sections they want to, and almost never ‘see’ the other sections on the page.

TIP 4: Make it Obvious what’s Clickable

Develop a consistent style for your links and use that style throughout your site. Some ways of doing this can be done with color, size, placement, and style. Links don’t always have to be underlined, but doing so will make them stand out more. Never underline text on a website that is not a link. This will frustrate users when they try to click on it.

Also make your links relevant to where they will take you. If you click on link that says “5 Tips for a User-Friendly website” then you would expect to find 5 tips for a user-friendly website. If it took you to the contact page you, as the user, would be frustrated. Another bad idea is using the term “Click Here” as your link. A web user that is visually impaired wouldn’t know where that link would take them since they’d only hear, “LINK, Click Here”. Other than that, it’s also hurts you with your on-page SEO. Search engines like to see descriptive links.

TIP 5: Minimize the Noise

This is where white space comes into play. There are many way to minimize noise on a page.

• You can change the line-height of a paragraph to make it seem less dense
• You can remove distracting Flash elements from a page
• You can remove images to improve flow
• You can add images to improve flow
• You can make solid bold lines a lighter weight and use light colors
• You can change your color scheme to be more soothing and less distracting
• Limiting your color scheme to 3-4 colors is a good general rule
• Play with the font size
• Improve your hierarchy
• Overall, just make your pages less busy

Good Web Design Looks Easy

It looks easy, but creating a simple design that functions involves a lot of planning, and experimentation. Test your site and get feedback from other testers as well. With a few tweaks to your design, you can take a site that scares away users, to having a user-friendly website that keeps them coming back.

If you liked this information, check out Steve Krug’s book, “Don’t Make Me Think” for more.