Web Design Tips: 01/15/09
By: John Vinson
Find a balance between information on one page, and number of clicks for navigation: So much of what you need to do to have a successful website is based on balance. Finding a balance between style, and simplicity, ads and space etc.
When it comes to your website, you want to try and keep people from having to click around as much as possible. The less people have to find where they need to go, the more apt they are to stay and view your content. If someone is having to click around 6-7 times just to get one piece of informations there’s a good chance they’ll just go somewhere else.
Of course there’s a flip side, as you can run into stuffing information onto a single page. People might hate having to click through links, but they hate scrolling through a page just as much. A good rule is to try and fit as much information as you can onto two screens. Your users should only have to scroll the mouse wheel down and up one time.
Keep Your Text Lines Succinct And Columns Narrow: The way that the human eye works, everything is based on perception. We perceive information a certain way based on how it’s present to us. For example, some like to listen to absorb information while others like to see it.
When people are trying to look at the information on your site, it’s vital that it’s easy for them to take in. Something that is overlooked from time-to-time is the size of the columns that your information is displayed on. If you’re the owner of a blog this tip is of grave importance.
No one likes lines of text that take up half of their web browsers. There’s a reason that newspapers, and magazines have narrow columns with minimal words per line. It’s easier on people’s eyes to keep up with shorter and minimal lines of text.
