What Makes a “Good” Site?
While designing your website, there are countless questions that may arise. Should you use a content management system (CMS) or build your own site with a developer? What information should you include and how will you present it? How do you want it to look and feel? Those are just a few that might pop up in the early stages. However, many designers would argue that a website’s usability is one of the most important aspects in this process.
Now, you might wonder “What makes a website usable?” There are many guides that will give you a general understanding of this concept. For example, you could refer to a heuristic evaluation such as Jakob Nielsen’s Ten Usability Heuristics or Andy Budd’s Heuristics For Modern Web Application Development. Personally, prefer Andy’s Budd’s updated version of Nielsen’s evaluation method, and although Budd’s guide was defined in 2007, they still function as a great starting point in evaluating the strength in your website’s usability.
Here are some of the most effective ways to implement usability standards to our practice.
User Experience Matters
When you think about how to reach users in web design, you may want to approach your website through a user’s eyes. It is always helpful to dig into some research to find out how users read and navigate a website. For example, Smashing Magazine points out that “users don’t read, they scan.” The most visible information on a website is typically read, clicked, or engaged with. Often times if a user scrolls, it’s not for long; and guiding users with images and headers can help to maintain attention span. It’s important to notice patterns like these so that we can make design choices based on those patterns. This will help us to create an intuitive user experience for visitors.
Keep it Simple
Another principle to keep in mind is simplicity. While designing your website, start with minimalism in mind. Prioritize the most important information, and present them effectively via your homepage and navigation. You might do this by displaying key products or information first, determining the most effective structure in your primary, secondary, and additional navigations, or creating clear and bold CTA’s.
Context
Remember: context matters. Think about why you’re including certain information and where it should go. For example, say you are creating a website for a popular brunch spot. The owner wants to include the restaurant’s origin story, mission, and location as well as the menu, contact information, and reservation information. All of this information can be presented on their website in separate sections such as About, Menu, Reservations, and Contact. The homepage could include elements of all of these separate pages such as a short introduction, today’s menu, hours and contact info in the header and footer, and a “Make a Reservation” CTA button.
Design Elements
When thinking about the aesthetic choices you would like to make, remember that colors, fonts, accents, and overall design structure not only communicate your story, but also effective user guides. Create an information hierarchy with these types of elements like headings, colors, and images to highlight the most important information and engage users.
These are just some ways to bring your website to life while also ensuring the most usable experience for visitors, both new and returning.
Site Comparison
The Knitting Factory
The Knitting Factory does a good job giving its audience what they want: events. The homepage is full of event listings with images and their respective ticket links for easy use. Their content on each page is priorities well, and their pages are well-maintained and brief, summarizing each purpose efficiently. Their design and color palette is well thought-out and ADA compliant creating a great experience for every person who views their website.
Rubulad
Rubulad’s homepage could do well with some re-structuring of its content. The homepage is sparse and its design elements are awkward and clunky with images of different sizes and alignments displayed side-by-side and a long text box of former performers that only takes up a third of the column width but scrolls for a long time down the page without any other elements alongside. Its writing and images are so much fun, but its design inhibits those great pieces of content to truly shine.
As you can see, websites come in very different packaging. Some websites like The Knitting Factory’s will be made by teams of people who understand web development well and follow a lot of the best practices. But others made by individuals or smaller-scale teams using a CMS like Rubulad’s may find some trouble creating the experience that viewers expect and lack the design knowledge to build a website.