http://webusability-blog.com Tips, insights and meandering thoughts about usability and information architecture Sun, 20 Feb 2011 16:47:59 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Standard 404 page Had a bit of a scare this week. If you accidentally type in www.google.com/masp instead of www.google.com/maps, you get this: Not really what you'd expect from Google. What is a 404 error page? A web server shows an error 404 if it is asked for the url of a page that ... http://webusability-blog.com/no-404-error-page-at-google/ On the eve of World Usability Day, 10 November 2010, the winners of the second edition of the Usability Awards were announced. 1. Belgium's most user-friendly website (overall winner - public vote) Chosen by the general public based on a short-list of 10 websites selected by a professional jury. 1st place: Karel de ... http://webusability-blog.com/belgian-usability-awards-2010-winners/ Why is registration such a bad idea? 1. Are you registered or aren't you? On a website that has registration, the order process usually starts by asking you whether you're registered or not. Trouble is, people often simply don't remember. You can improve that page by wording it a bit more friendly ... http://webusability-blog.com/registration-kills-conversion/ 1. What is a title tag? The title tag determines the name of a web page as it appears in Google. The content of the title tag plays an important part in the ranking a page gets in Google and Bing. 2. What is a description tag? The description tag is a text ... http://webusability-blog.com/title-and-description-tags-a-complete-guide/ Too many pages makes life hard for your visitors Your website should focus on your users' top tasks. Unfortunately, lots of websites don't do that. They put everything they have ever done and more on their website. Result: a website with loads of pages nobody's interested in. Is that really so bad ... http://webusability-blog.com/how-to-track-down-the-least-visited-pages-of-your-website-and-what-to-do-with-them/ Visa describes Visa Online as "Your one destination for all your Visa business needs". Sounds promising, doesn't it? I thought so. Untill I actually tried to get into the European website. It didn't work in Firefox, even though I was using the latest version. Maybe it's one of these sites that only work ... http://webusability-blog.com/internet-explorer-6-visa-idea-safe/ Why is it important to analyse your own site search? Knowing what people search for on your site is very, very interesting. After all, these people are already on your website. And they're probably using your search feature because they can't immediately find what they're looking for. At least, that's what ... http://webusability-blog.com/analyse-your-site-search-to-increase-roi/ Why analyse your own site search data? What people use your search feature for says something about your navigation, homepage and overview pages. If those are all perfectly fine, chances are that very few people will use your search feature. Insight into what people are searching for on your website. Which words ... http://webusability-blog.com/analyse-your-own-site-search-with-google-analytics/ Faceted search: when and why? Faceted search helps people to look for things based on criteria that are important for them. In classic web navigation, the website determines the order of the choices. But this hierarchical structure is too limited for sites with a large product range or information offering. Different people ... http://webusability-blog.com/faceted-search-4-design-tips/ Your homepage is not always the first page people see. Lots of visitors find your site via Google and immediately end up on a detail page. Or maybe they've clicked a link on another website. A link that doesn't necessarily mention your website's name. Letting people know which site they're ... http://webusability-blog.com/5-tips-to-show-users-where-they-are-on-your-website/ Although research shows that users spend 80% of their time above the page fold, a lot of websites don't really take that into account. The overview pages on the website of Antwerp art campus deSingel give the user an overview of, well, not very much. Except for a truly huge page ... http://webusability-blog.com/useless-overview-pages-at-desingel/ Finding the right holiday home isn't easy. And the advanced search feature on Iha.com doesn't make it any easier. Then again, maybe it's handy if you're looking for a lakeside cottage in the mountains with a private swimming pool and sauna. Around the corner from an 18 hole golf course. ... http://webusability-blog.com/extremely-advanced-search/ Is good navigation important? A client recently asked me: “Navigation, isn't that a bit old hat? I mean, this is the time of Google. Doesn't everybody just search?” No, they don't. Good navigation and good links are vital for the success of a website. A search feature is an added bonus, sure. ... http://webusability-blog.com/navigation-versus-search/ At Lego.com, people with perfectly innocent names like Massimo or Laetitia are considered perverts. As soon as your chosen user name contains certain, shall we say 'improper', letter combinations Lego delicately points this out to you. And then forces you to choose a different user name. It's good to be careful. ... http://webusability-blog.com/the-people-at-lego-are-slightly-paranoid/ After reading ‘Description tag: what is it and why is it so important?’ you know what a description tag is and why it matters so much. But how do you write a good description tag? These 12 tips should point you in the right direction. 1. Use no more than 155 characters ... http://webusability-blog.com/12-tips-for-the-perfect-description-tag/ Route planner Mappy had a strange message for me last week. What do you mean, this route is not available? Has the road gone missing? Was it destroyed by an earthquake? A tsunami? Has it been temporarily moved to a parallell universe? Help! Related articles Gender error 7 tips for user-friendly error messages http://webusability-blog.com/this-route-is-not-available-at-the-moment/ What is a description tag ? The description tag is a piece of html code that's meant to give a short - you guessed it - description of a web page. The description tag is at the top of the page in the <HEAD>section of the code. In code, a description tag ... http://webusability-blog.com/description-tag-what-is-it-and-why-is-it-so-important/ Do experts know everything? 10 years ago I thought so. More specifically: I thought I knew everything. Surely my usability expertise, my deep knowledge of information architecture would be enough to find and solve all the usability issues on every possible website? Without research you can never truly know your users 10 years of ... http://webusability-blog.com/experts-dont-know-everythin/ Creating content is fun The great thing about a content management system (CMS) is that it makes it really easy to create and publish content on your website. So that's what most webmasters and editors do: they create and publish content like there's no tomorrow. Cause it's fun. And it's what they're ... http://webusability-blog.com/cms-dont-manage-websites-people-do/ A little while ago, we talked about 8 tips for the perfect title tag. Which provides us with a good excuse to also show you some examples of what not to do. 1. The root of all evil 2. Must remember to enter title tag. Very important! 3. Final countdown? Final homapge! 4. Friendly, but ... http://webusability-blog.com/4-examples-of-clumsy-title-tags/