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• Web sites are a product, but most good products start with a good process.
Methodologies are your friend. The old iXL project management methodology -- Discover, Define, Design, Develop, Deploy -- is my standard. For information architecture work, I follow J.J. Garrett's Five Elements -- Strategy, Scope, Structure, Skeleton and Screen. (Garrett calls the last one Surface; I use Screen because I don't want to sound Shallow).
• Your customers are your best source of information.
This is a marcom standard still missed by many. The classic example was Quicken's "Follow a customer home" program. Any difficulty was not the customer's fault, it was Quicken's. When it comes to Web work, this means analyzing visitor paths and adjusting accordingly.
• No Web site is 100 percent correct from Day One.
A corrollary to the the point above. Just as great sports teams make halftime adjustments, Web editors need flexibility to react to user patterns. If your traffic analytics package won't allow you to look at paths, start by comparing the most popular pages to the most popular exit pages. Never lock yourself in design-wise -- leave yourself room for testable areas.
• There is no math in trying to outsmart the user. The user will make you smart.
Site owner after site owner has learned the hard way that it's not what you want to present, it's what your visitor comes looking for. Anticipating needs and filling them is the secret to success. Your Web site does not need to follow your org chart.
• If all life is based on carbon, then all Web interaction is based on the three-click rule. Get the user to the desired result in three clicks, or risk losing them on the fourth.
Jakob Nielsen recently updated this: on average, Web visitors will leave in one minute, 49 seconds if they don't see what they want.
• A good project begins with a good want ad.
Different skill sets are required for on-screen and off-screen work. Since the behind-the-screens technologists are generally in charge, too many decisions wind up being based on little more than tools and technologies. Think of it as the difference between carpentry and woodworking. There's no Microsoft certification for snappy verbs.
USER-FIRST ENGINEERING
• Always test users, but never listen to what they say. Watch what they do.
Ask them to do various tasks, and watch where they click. Always tell test subjects that they are not being tested, the system is. If they tell you they would have seen a certain item if it had been in red, don't make a note to make it red, make a note that the item wasn't seen. Remember, too, that a survey is not a test. You can most certainly hold meetings with stakeholders to gain input and establish priorities, but it's your job to match client expectations with ease of use for visitors.
• People don't read Web pages, they scan them.
This places an emphasis on a design dominated by bullets and sub-heads, and it places a premium on writing in brief. Your typographic conventions will play a big role in how search engines rank your page so always remember when you're writing for humans and when you're writing for robots. Put your robot food in unobtrusive places (see below).
• Know where your visitor's eyes will land, and place priority items in high-visibility areas.
This is beyond obvious, but it's amazing how many sites miss this point. See my section on the Poynter EyeTrack study for more details.
• Visitors have a four-step mental sequence when arriving at a Web page -- what does it say, what does it do, should I stay or should I go, and if I stay, where do I go next?
The where-next is crucial. Links need to clearly present what lies beyond. It's called the managed expectations theory. Beware overly vague categories. Your text links (DHTML and Flash navigation can work against you) play a big role in search engine recognition, but don't sacrifice human understanding for a higher Google Page Rank.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
• Web pages are a mix of things you can do (functionalities) and things you can read (content). Data is not synonomous with information; data without context is not content.
When it comes to things you can read, categorize by production needs (timely versus timeless) before categorizng by interest (global versus local, category as opposed to subcategory). Remember, too, that in the modern wired-up world, information moves both top-down and bottom-up, and that bottom-up information will always lead to corporate issues of governance. It is always more efficient to establish standards and compliance than it is to pre-approve everything ever published, but this is not how most corporations think.
• Your categories of information must make sense to your end user, your file structure must aid in search engine recognition, and your production means should not constrain your ability to deliver clear information to your visitor.
This applies particularly to shopping cart systems. Don't put the entire site in the cart -- keep a distinction between the information needed to spark the sale and the functionality needed to close it. I can't even begin to tell you how much trouble I've seen in this area.
• Information needs to be presented in increasing levels of depth.
The 5 to 10 word headline, the 50 to 100 word abstract or blurb, the 200 to 400 word feature, and after that, as many screens of detail as the user wants to plow through. In terms of online marketing, every bit of positive information provided gets you closer to closing the deal.
DESIGN AND NAVIGATION
• Organize visually what should be organized logically.
Your control factors are color, typography and placement.
• Great color schemes involve three colors.
Think a primary color, it's mathematical reverse, and a complimentary color. Need an example -- the Southern classic khaki pants, blue blazer, red or yellow tie.
• The more upscale the brand, the fewer elements per page.
Admit it. You've seen thousands of ads, and you never noticed that before.
• Put category navigation on the right, not the left. It's not readability (left to right) but usability.
The scrollbar is on the right, which means most times the cursor is on the right.
• No search function is better than a bad one.
People use the search button in the same manner as which they shop in the physical realm. Some people meander and look around. Some people beeline for the clerk and ask. Some people go straight to their favorite spot. In the case here, the search box is the clerk. A third of all visitors will navigate through the search regardless of the quality of navigation.
• The more advanced features you add to a search, the less usable it becomes.
First proved by Nielsen and there's no need to reinvent the wheel. Search should be persistent (every page) and consistent (same place on the page). The convention is the word search, a text input box, a Go button, and a link to an advanced search. Note – the advanced search will rarely be used.
• Never assume your reader will read to the very end and navigate from there.
Good navigation means never having to use the back button.
• Never make someone register for anything if they don't have to.
Nothing drops traffic like registration.
• Every pixel is precious.
White space is beautiful; wasted space is expensive.
WEB WRITING
• There's a difference between a label (a category) and a headline.
Verbs denote action. "Browse our home collection" will get more clicks than "home collection." You want to see a Web site that understands verbs? Martha Stewart. Whenever possible, if you have a category link, use additional text to give people a better sense of what awaits them after clicking.
• Writing for the Web is about writing for the ear.
What works best on the Web is a human tone of voice. Don't think of Web sites as billboards, think of them as conversations. Blatherspeak doesn't work in the world of a steadily more sophisticated (and cynical) audience. Overhyping a product will lessen credibility, not enhance it.
• Never forget your task is establishing credibility in a virtual realm.
This includes the tone and the graphic look and feel, but goes to a more basic point -- who are you guys and why should I trust you with my money? In nearly every consultant engagement I've conducted, I've advocated real staff pictures (not stock art), pictures of physical locations (with snail mail and ground delivery addresses), and client or customer testimonials. I advocate press releases and media links and any other evidence that you exist. Charitable works always help.
• Search engines are designed to reward success and promote quality.
What good is a hyped site if people bail out upon arrival? In writing, there's a fine line between being search-engine friendly and human-unfriendly, and site after site misses that mark. For the better part of two years I worked with a boss obsessed with keyword densities and search engine standing, humans be damned. What a waste.
• Both the AP Style Book and the Chicago Manual of Style say the term is "Web site," two words, capital w.
I spent years railing against this misspelling, and I lost the battle. It's now acceptable in many dictionaries to use the term website, even though it drives me crazy. There's a rule there, too -- you have to know when to just move on.
PROJECT DYNAMICS
• I can put wings on my car, but it won't make it an airplane.
A great quote from a corporate meeting on the perils of scope creep. It's paradoxical but true -- a short cut in planning will almost always slow down the process, not speed it up.
• You can't lead from the bottom.
Your job on the way up is to make the people above you look good. One dissent is input; the second dissent is an argument.
• I know what you pay me to give advice -- what would you pay me to take it?
My candidate for greatest-ever quote from a fustrated consultant (not me). Remember, consulting work is as much about dealing with failure as it is dealing with success, and it's as much about the humans as it is about the work.
• When something blows up, the over-riding task is to fix it, not to affix blame.
There's an old saying: "It's amazing what can get done if no one cares about getting the credit." Here's a new take on it. It's true.
• When at a conference table, try to sit directly next to your rival.
It's more disarming than peering across.
INTRANETS
• Bottom-up publishing.
Company after company misses this. History is clear – the success of an intranet largely depends on the ease of publishing. Intranet publishing should require nothing more than a browser.
• Personalized Portals.
. A field largely dominated by companies trying to sell you what they have made instead of what you need. There is, however, a simple brilliance involved in a personalized news/utility/point-of-entry page. The more you automatically and accurately present information, the fewer pixels needed for navigation. Nearly a third of the average page is lost to navigation. Do personalization correctly and it's tremendous.
• Extensibility.
A fancy word meaning "think ahead." Just amazing how often you see sites where you have to rework an entire page just to add one new thing; always leave modular spaces that can be swapped in and out. The idea here is to marry technology, content, graphic design and information design. The verb "marry" is intentional, because marriage is a mix of things you love and things you have to put up with.
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(With thanks to Tufte, Nielsen, Tognazzini, Krug and Garrett.)
