Usability & Navigation
September 1st, 2008 at 03:36pm
Under Usability & Navigation+ Web Design & CSS
It is quite frustrating when accessing a site and reached a 404 page. Usually people would just click back or simply close the browser.
However, it is always recommended to make this 404 page useful. This way you would be able to keep your potential client when they fail to reach a page.
The Google Webmaster Central blog has announced that an ‘enhanced 404 page’ can be created in the webmaster tools. Once created, a widget can be placed on your customized 404 page. The page would then display something like this:
It contains:
- A link to the parent sub-directory
- A link to the sitemap
- A Google Search box
To obtain the widget, go to ‘Enhance 404 Pages’ section in webmaster tools, and a Javascript would be generated. Copy and paste the code and you are done. Remember to return a 404 code.
By Leo
July 13th, 2007 at 11:44am
Under Usability & Navigation
Which one is more important? I have met a lot of amazing technical people who can do something nobody would ever understand (yes, I studied engineering).
One thing that we have learnt during our course is we need to be able to COMMUNICATE with the non-techie of what we are doing.
Putting it in developing a website, it is important to have a website that can produce accurate information. However, you have to remember that a website is built for EVERYBODY to use. Yes, everybody. If you need to download 20 plugins to make your menu flash, then don’t use it.
It is more important to build a website that everybody is able to use, and find the information.
By the way, in a business point of view, if you need 50 hours to build something in a very complex way, it is better to hire another person who can make something with the same functionality in 5 hours. Apparently there is always a simpler way to make things work.
By Leo
July 6th, 2007 at 10:35am
Under Usability & Navigation+ Web Design & CSS
Recently I was asked to add a web brochure to a website. It typically consists of 8-10 pages, featuring the benefit of employing a business etc.
A traditional method of presenting this is in the “About Us” page, where everything is listed on the same page with some small stock photos on the side.
Or you might have seen this on some member websites which have a virtual tour, and you have to click “next” to continue the tour.
Nowadays internet users require quick, precise information. Therefore, I have designed the brochure to be 10 pages, with bullet pointed features. It is also very important to have strong call-to-action - asking the reader to contact this business for further information. It doesn’t hurt to place 2 on the same page.
Below the main paragraph I have links to other pages. However, instead of “next page”, I have got all the 10 pages listed at the bottom of the page by title. Underneath the title, I have a short paragraph (2 lines max) outlining what the page is about. The title is also link-enabled, making these links keyword-rich.
Doing it this way would increase the number of internal linking and page contents, which are in favour of search engine crawlers. Moreover, this would bring internet users straight to the information that they are looking for, hence increasing usability.
This is indeed not a new trick. But I am surprised to see lots of people still using the old method.
By Leo
June 29th, 2007 at 03:49pm
Under SEO+ Usability & Navigation
The answer is “Yes” and “No”. It is heavily dependent on how you write the script.
The theory is that spiders can’t read links hidden in JavaScript. There is no <a> tag, hence it won’t understand it is indeed a hyperlink.
So, how do we solve this problem?
The answer is “unobtrusive JavaScript”. 2 steps:
- Write the menu items in simple <ul> <li> <a> tags.
- Use JavaScript to manipulate it to become a drop menu.
In this case, the spiders would be able to read the <a> tag and identify the links, whilst users would be able to have better experience using drop menus.
Another thing to add is text links at the bottom of the page, linking to the main category pages which should contain links to the other pages.
By Leo
June 26th, 2007 at 11:23am
Under Usability & Navigation
For a commercial website, you do need to include the logo. It represents your company.
If you employ a better web designer, he would design the color scheme of your website base on your logo’s color. If your logo with a white background in a square shape is placed on your banner, well, it is better to change your designer now. He doesn’t know what he is doing.
Is there a usual practice of where to put the logo?
The answer is “Yes”. The best place to put the logo is on the left hand top corner. As opposed to the right hand top corner which the media agency claims it has the most exposure. (It is true on printed media as when people flip pages, they tend to flip the right hand top corner, and hence that corner has more exposure.)
And you MUST link the logo to your homepage. Internet users have got used to click on the logo on the left hand top corner to go back to the homepage.
By Leo
