Petersen, Constance (10 links)
Items by Petersen, Constance.
Simplify & Sort for Better Searches
http://www.smartisans.com/articles/web_search.aspx
Search advice with examples.
Borders, CDNow and Barnes & Noble and others are used as examples for search tips:
- Make search easy to find on every page
- Anticipate questions
- Search results need to have just the right amount of information
- Let users re-organize the results
By Constance Petersen.
Topic:
Searching (15)
Destination: Designing Ways (10)
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May 15, 2000
Seven Steps To Easier Web Navigation
http://www.smartisans.com/articles/web_navigation.aspx
Navigation tips.
Constance Petersen's April 2000 article has these suggestions:
- Use standard icons, conventions
- Avoid irrelevant links
- Reveal structure
- Leave breadcrumbs
- Don't bury information
- Don't be mysterious
- Provide help
Topic:
Navigation (14)
Destination: Designing Ways (10)
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April 11, 2000
Web Ugly
http://www.smartisans.com/web_ugly.htm
Destination: Designing Ways (10)
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February 22, 2000
No Weak Links
http://www.smartisans.com/no_weak_links.htm
23 ways to reduce usability with links.
Some of the ways to make weak links:
- Broken
- Embedded
- Ambiguous
- Orphaned (although I would say the page is orphaned, not the link)
- Indistinguishable
- Unfocused
- Miscolored
I would probably add another one, where you link to a page deep inside a site but it does not provide enough context for users to figure out where they are. This happens a lot when the page you want to link to is buried within frames and you are forced to link to the un-framed page. You can provide some context at your end (the link), but if the destination page does not provide its own "where am I", then it makes your site look bad, too.
Constance Petersen's UI Design column "Designing Ways".
Topic:
Linking (10)
Destination: Designing Ways (10)
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November 26, 1999
Know Thy Users
http://www.smartisans.com/know_thy_users.htm
Destination: Designing Ways (10)
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November 22, 1999
Usability Testing
http://www.smartisans.com/usability_testing.htm
Intro to user testing, originally from Borland's Developer News.
Topic:
User Testing (17)
Destination: Designing Ways (10)
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November 20, 1999
Reeling in the Sales
http://www.smartisans.com/reeling_in_the_sales.htm
Destination: Designing Ways (10)
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October 12, 1999
Why animate?
http://www.smartisans.com/why_animate.htm
Animated content helps, spinning logos hurt.
Topic:
Animation (3)
Destination: Designing Ways (10)
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September 28, 1999
Web Design Commandments
http://www.smartisans.com/webcmdmts.htm
Destination: Designing Ways (10)
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August 29, 1999
Focus on Usability
http://www.smartisans.com/focusab1.htm
Destination: Designing Ways (10)
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December 12, 1996
