One of the top experts on Web design and usability is Jakob Nielsen. He reminds all of us that people spend far more time on other people's sites. What's the point?
The point is that you need to design your site using common features so folks don't have to re-learn basic navigation when they hit your site. The reason you don't want them to have to do that is that they won't. Instead, they’ll leave.
One of the biggest offenders here is links. For some reason, folks seem to think that putting links in a different color than the ones people are used to aids somehow in the effectiveness of the site. In fact, it works the other way.
When folks see blue type with an underline, they expect it to be a link. They expect the link color to change to magenta after the link's been visited. That's what you should be doing on your site.
In fact, I'd give serious consideration to not using underlining much at all. Many users in our focus groups seem to like running the mouse over the underlined word just to see if it's a link. After awhile, they get frustrated with that.
Making It Work
Your site should not only be simple and fast, it should use common design conventions so that people know what to expect.
Created/Revised/Reviewed: 30 July 2002
This is only one Big Idea. You'll find more in Wally's book, What's the Big Idea? and in his Big Idea column. There's a complete list on the Main Big Idea page. You may also order the book by clicking here.
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