Usability Best Practices
10/12/2006Here are some important best practices to consider when creating a usable web design:
Images
¢ No busy backgrounds
¢ Minimize the use of imagery so the page loads quickly
¢ Keep graphical text to a minimum
Text
¢ No text over background images
¢ No white text on black backgrounds
¢ No large text blocks
¢ Use web-safe fonts (Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, Tacoma)
¢ Make sure that text line length is not too long
¢ Text size should be 10 or above
¢ Avoid dense content and un-scannable text
Navigation
¢ Navigation should be at the top horizontal or left vertical of the page
¢ Make the navigation obvious
¢ Logo should be top left and link to the homepage
¢ There should be a bottom horizontal nav repeating main navigational items
¢ Maintain navigational consistency throughout the site
¢ Make links look like links (i.e. underlined)
¢ Links should change color once visited
¢ Make sure user can orient themselves on the site at all times
¢ Avoid dropdown menus
General Layout
¢ Avoid internal scrolling if possible
¢ Keep important information above the fold
¢ Remember that users might come to the site through an internal page
¢ Avoid design elements that might look like outside advertising (users have banner blindness)
¢ No horizontal scrolling
¢ Keep consistent layout throughout the site (homepage is the exception)
¢ Use white space
¢ Separate logical content into buckets
