OK, so you've stumbled onto a cool/funny/useful/profitable idea for a website. Or perhaps you've designed the next killer app, you'll make millions by selling it on-demand. Well I hate to break it to you, but no one will continue to visit/use your web site or application if the interface sucks.
This article will provide a number of proven concepts to enhance the UI design of your site or application. You may feel like some of your ideas are better/slicker, but remember: your ideas aren't proven ;).
The Cardinal Rule: People are Inherently Brain-dead
I don't mean to insult you with that heading. Heck, I even include myself when I say 'people'. OK, perhaps we aren't all brain-dead, but we are definitely brain-lazy. The simple truth is that we will resist thinking through new ways of doing things.
Example: In the past you've always clicked the little shopping cart icon to see what you've ordered thus far. So you want to get clever and call it something different on your site, like "bucket" or "gurney". Don't. Who cares if it's cute, I won't see it when I'm looking to click on my "cart" and I will therefore not complete my order on your site.
Therefore, if there are already well-established processes, terms, icons, etc. for something on your site, use them. If you haven't masterminded some incredibly intuitive and optimized process that blows away the norm, then resist that creative urge. If you have, then you probably work at Google.
Consistency is Key
I just mentioned staying consistent to common UI features around the web. It's also exceedingly important to stay consistent with your own chosen features. If you use an image of a floppy disk to indicate a save feature in one section, make sure you don't just have a plain input button that says 'save' in another section.
People Like to Search, So Let Them
If your site contains any sort of useful content, people will be looking for it. They won't want to browse through endless archives to find it. You should be providing a search mechanism as soon as you provide any sort of consumable content on your site.
The easiest way to do this is just what you see on this page: a little text query box, and a little button that says 'search'. If you're using a blog or CMS tool, most likely they have built-in or pluggable search tools. Use them.
Make Good Use of Localization
If you are planning to cater to international visitors, have you thought of how to offer English, Spanish, French and so on? Now it's your choice of how to translate the content, but with modern browsers and web programming technologies, you can *easily* detect the location and language preference of your visitor, and serve them the content that speaks to them. Of course, you'll want to provide a list of all languages available if they wish to change.
Don't Get too Creative
You may have figured out a seriously cool way to have menu links appear randomly when the user moves their head. That's pretty cool, but it's confusing. Just remember, your site's navigation and page hierarchy should be intuitive. And going back to the cardinal rule, 'intuitive' would indicate that it's the same means of navigation that people see elsewhere. This may be a directory tree, "fly-out" menus, or just a flat list.
Don't "click here"
"Click here" is a phrase that people are becoming blind to. It's over-used, it's meaningless, it doesn't tell us anything about what will happen when we click "here". You need to put context around your links. You need to tell me exactly what to expect, or what they're receive as a reward for clicking on whatever "here" is.
So rather than saying: "click here for more information", say "get your free whitepaper now!".
Use W3C Web standards
Web Standards are efficient way to separate content from presentation by using XHTML and CSS2. For you this means easier updates to your entire website, and less bandwidth consumed. For your visitors it means cross-browser consistency, graceful degradation for mobile devices, and free money. OK, maybe the free money thing is a little too much to expect.
The Design Should Not Be Apparent
Are you a designer or an artist? Then yes, the design of your site should impress. Otherwise, it should be transparent. People are there for the content of your site or the functionality of your application. Take this into serious consideration when pondering the use of Flash.
If your site is designed properly, people will subconsciously enjoy the experience, in that they won't hate it; and therefore are more likely to return and/or recommend the site to a friend.
First step: remove unnecessary clutter. Look at your site template, your home page, etc and ask yourself: what can I remove without sacrificing any functionality or usefulness?
Keep Your Font Selection Simple
Set standards for your global template that use only 3-3 colors, preferable 1 (2 at the most) font faces, and only 2 or 3 different sizes. I'm still working on the template of this site to accomplish exactly that.
Conclusion
You are now aware of some of the more common mistakes people make website design and usability, as well as best-practices to make your visitors happy. You are welcome to comment on any of these points, as well as add tips of your own!
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