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Less Is More How To Keep Your Website Clutter free
ll glitz and fizz to use it will be a barrier
rather than a gateway. Usability
The past was about 'bells guru, Jakob Nielsen, suggests
and whistles'. Websites were users spend on average less than
designed to showcase the 2 minutes on a website. The key
technology behind the web rather to engaging visitors' must
than to be an effective therefore be simplicity over
communications medium. Flash was complexity; the need is less not
used to "excite" and "engage" - more - less clutter, less blurb
its effect however was often the and fewer barriers.
opposite. And web navigation was
sometimes an experiment in Why clutter-free design
obscurity making it almost
impossible for the visitor to "When we're creating sites, we
find their way around. act as though people are going to
Entertainment was the mantra pore over each page, reading our
rather than communication finely crafted text, figuring out
effectiveness. how we've organized things, and
weighing their options before
We want it now deciding which link to click...
There are often only a handful of ...We're thinking 'great
reasons or actions for which the literature' (or at least 'product
majority of visitors will be at brochure'), while the user's
your site. They want to complete reality is much closer to
the task in hand e.g find a "billboard going by at 60 miles
price, book a ticket or get an hour."
directions with minimum fuss. --Steve Krug, Don't Make Me Think
Unless a site is quick and easy The Internet is clearly a
different form of communication people rarely read pages online -
to more established media such as they scan, or "speed read".
printed literature. However, it Therefore, if the information
is only in recent years that its they need is not readily
intrinsic differences have begun available they will move on - and
to make an impact on web design. quickly. Sensible use of
I cannot count the number of headings, subheadings and
times I've heard of clients bullet-points help bring a
asking their web designer to 'put logical hierarchy to the page and
our brochure online' - a brief allow visitors eyes to scan
that reflects a common lack of through the page efficiently to
appreciation of the web as a find the information they
powerful but very different needallows visitors eyes to scan
medium. through efficiently to find the
information they need.
Ensuring that the design and
layout of our web pages suit the 2) Give me some [white] space
medium they are used in will help
to ensure a positive user Subtle and thoughtful use of
experience. space in page design helps guide
a visitor's eyes to important
Let's look at a few practical information. It also helps to
ways of doing more with less to bring logical definition to
make things simpler for our different areas of a page, which
visitors: lightens the load on our brains
and allows us to focus on the
1) Make pages easy to scan task in hand.
It's a well recognised fact now 3) Copy? Reduce it
amongst web professionals that
Visitors often won't have the When it comes to labelling
time or inclination to read pages navigation links, it's a good
and pages of text in the hope of idea to follow standards that
finding what they're after. We have evolved with web
need to prune our web copy to development. For example, with
suit the medium - get rid of contact details rather than
paragraphs and sentences that giving it a navigation label,
don't add value. 'call for more information/our
offices', the standard would be
4) Simplify site structure 'contacts' or 'contact us'.
Make sure that the sections of In closing...
the site are divided up logically
and that the navigation is clear Some might suggest that these
and logical. Reduce the number of principles constrain creativity.
steps it takes to complete tasks, However, I believe that the 'less
especially when they lead to is more' philosophy heightens the
revenue generation - such as the need for a more creative approach
checkout process on an e-commerce to communicating ideas and
site. messages - communicating an idea
in 10 words is a lot harder than
5) Follow standards using 100 words.
About the Author:
Jeremy Jarvis is a designer at Reflex Digital, offering web design services in Leeds, West Yorkshire and the UK. See http://www.reflex.net/ for more information.
Read more articles by: Jeremy Jarvis
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
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