SEO vs Usability

While reading an article this morning, I couldn't help but feel relieved with the fact that we, Tamar, already understand a fundamental factor of optimising websites -- when building or redesigning a site, one of the target users that is always considered and tested for is the "search engine". There is no struggle between the different "owners" of the project, we all know how important the balance is and, at this point, we just seem to do it naturally. Not surprising really considering our differentiator as a business is "search conversion".

In general, meeting the needs of the search user runs parallel with meeting many other best practice usability and accessibility needs. For example, using meta tags, not using a splash page or flash for important content, creating clear, relevant and meaningful labelling and architecting the site to meet user expectations (to name a few).

The one area where there seems to be the greatest potential for a conflict would be with the quantity and density of content. However, through practice and experience, we have learned ways to still meet the content requirements of the "Search user" without distracting from the needs and goals of the  other users.

In fact, the content can be equally optimised for conversion (which includes both persuasion and usability) as it is for search; it isn't so much compromise as creativity and a dedication to getting the perfect balance. In the end, it isn't worth sacrificing one for the other because getting more traffic to a site that is not going to engage your customers is as useless as an enthralling site with no visitors.

I hate PowerPoint – Part 1

It's clumsy and very hard to make content look pretty. Generally, the use of drop shadows and fading photographs or photographic backgrounds wouldn’t normally be appreciated on the web or print, but for some reason these pet hates are frequently used in powerpoint.

However, I have also come to realise that unfortunately there is just no escape. Partly because there doesn’t seem to be a mainstream competitor, but also as anyone from junior sales execs to managing directors seems to know how to use it better than me.

Anyway, rant over… my task over the next couple of weeks is to redesign our powerpoint presentations. I want something easy to read, stylish and to let the content speak for itself without any ‘jazzing up’ required. Can this be achieved?

Here are a few of things I’m going to do:

• Experiment with different colour backgrounds. Are darker backgrounds with white text easier on the eye when looked at for a long period of time?
• Use imagery as pauses in the presentation, rather than with the content slides or (dare I say it) under the content.
• Try to create templates that really focus on bullet points and typography, rather than paragraphs of text that shouldn’t be read on screen. Restricted to highlighting important points and therefore encouraging the audience to listen to the speaker.

To be continued…

Opera Developer Tools

After the success of FireFox's Firebug and Web Developer Tools. Opera has recently announced that they too, plan to release web developer tools for their browser. They have named their web developer tools Opera Dragonfly, which they have released on the 6th of May 2008.

Why is this release important amongst the web design community? Well, Opera has probably the best level of support amongst all of the web browswers, for the new CSS3 standard. And so, with the release of these much needed developer tools, comes the opportunity for web designers to push web design to the next level. In terms of exploring and discovering new and innovative build techniques, made possible by the new CSS3 standard.

Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design

Ben Shneiderman in Designing the User Interface proposed the following principles for good interaction design.

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1 Strive for consistency
Consistent sequences of actions should be required in similar situations;  identical terminology should be used in prompts, menus, and help screens; and consistent commands should be employed throughout.  

2 Enable frequent users to use short cuts.
As the frequency of use increases, so do the user's desires to reduce the number of interactions and to increase the pace of interaction. Abbreviations, function keys, hidden commands, and macro facilities are very helpful to an expert user.

3 Offer informative feedback.
For every operator action, there should be some system feedback. For frequent and minor actions, the response can be modest, while for infrequent and major actions, the response should be more substantial.

4 Design dialogue to yield closure.
Sequences of actions should be organized into groups with a beginning, middle, and end. The informative feedback at the completion of a group of actions gives   the operators the satisfaction of accomplishment, a sense of relief, the signal   to drop contingency plans and options from their minds, and an indication that the way is clear to prepare for the next group of actions.

5 Offer simple error handling.
As much as possible, design the system so the user cannot make a serious error. If an error is made, the system should be able to detect the error and offer simple, comprehensible mechanisms for handling the error.

6 Permit easy reversal of actions.
This feature relieves anxiety, since the user knows that errors can be undone;  it thus encourages exploration of unfamiliar options. The units of reversibility may be a single action, a data entry, or a complete group of actions.

7 Support internal locus of control.
Experienced operators strongly desire the sense that they are in charge of the   system and that the system responds to their actions. Design the system to make   users the initiators of actions rather than the responders.

8 Reduce short-term memory load.
The limitation of human information processing in short-term memory requires that displays be kept simple, multiple page displays be consolidated, window-motion frequency be reduced, and sufficient training time be allotted for codes, mnemonics, and sequences of actions.

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From http://faculty.washington.edu/jtenenbg/courses/360/f04/sessions/schneidermanGoldenRules.html 

To build or not to build?

This is a reoccurring question that is often discussed amongst web designers, especially when interviewing for new designers at Tamar. Tamar is relatively unique in that we have always employed web designers that can build their websites as well as design them, as other agencies tend to split the two disciplines.

Naturally everyone is different and leans more towards design or development skills but every designer we employ must have a good understanding of css and accessibility standards. 

Why? There are many different reasons for this. Personally, the best web designers I’ve worked with are the ones that have a full knowledge and passion for the web and its capabilities and that includes the desire to build their creations. The worst (and admittedly I’m going back a few years) are the print designers that treat the internet as static pages and have little understanding for how the web is built and functions, especially when it comes to the treatment of type.

Another reason for wanting to do css/html is so I can take the project to the next stage. One of the most satisfying parts of any new site is starting the build once the visuals have been signed off by the client.

However, I also think its important that a line is drawn as to how much development designers should do. As a rule we do css/html, but anything more technical such as javascript/.Net is handed over to the developers. It’s important to develop an area of expertise within the industry, rather than spread yours skills too thinly over multiple areas.