Designing Web Ads Using Click-Through Data

Search engine ads are one type of Web advertising that can actually work. To create the best ads, do quick experiments and redesign ads based on usability principles for online writing. Doing so helped us increase ad click-through by 55 to 310 percent.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2002). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Usability

Don't Get Burned by Bad Mapping

The term mapping describes the relationship between a control, the thing it affects, and the intended result. Poor mapping is evident when a control does not relate visually or symbolically with the object it affects, requiring the user to stop and think, 'what's going to happen when I turn this knob?'

Greenwood, Wayne. Cooper Interaction Design (2002). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Usability

In Search of Salience: A Response-Time and Eye-Movement Analysis of Bookmark Recognition

Describes the effect of bookmark naming on bookmark recognition. The purpose is to provide empirically-determined guidelines for web producers on how to title pages in order to optimise the recognition of bookmarks by users, and increase the rate of revisitation to their websites.

Poole, Alex. Alex Poole (2005). Articles>Information Design>Usability>Web Browsers

Influence of Training and Exposure on the Usage of Breadcrumb Navigation

Recent studies have shown that while the use of breadcrumb trails to navigate a website can be helpful, few users choose to utilize this method of navigation. This study investigates the effects of 'mere exposure' and training on breadcrumb usage. Findings indicate that brief training on the benefits of breadcrumb usage resulted in more efficient search behavior.

Hull, Spring S. Usability News (2004). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Usability

Issues of Saliency and Recognition in the Search for Web Page Bookmarks

Describes the effect of bookmark naming on bookmark recognition. The purpose was to provide empirically-determined guidelines for web producers on how to title pages in order to optimise the recognition of bookmarks by users, and to increase the rate of revisitation as a result.

Poole, Alex. Alex Poole (2005). Books>Information Design>Usability>Web Browsers

Navigating Isn't Fun

The artless Websites created during the Web's infancy were of necessity built only with simple HTML tags, and were forced to divide up their functionality and content into a maze (a web?) of separate pages. This made a navigation scheme an unavoidable component of any Website design, and of course, a clear, visually arresting navigation scheme was better than an obscure or hidden one. But many Web designers have incorrectly deduced from this that users want navigation schemes. Actually, they'd be happy if there were no navigation at all.

Cooper, Alan. Cooper Interaction Design (2001). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Usability

Navigation: An Often Neglected Component of Web Authorship

Web authors should follow web design conventions that account for the variety of ways users will try to navigate through their pages. While usability testing is the best way to ensure your site is really operating as you intend it to, this page offers a basic overview of basic navigation principles that most visitors will expect on most pages that they visit.

Jerz, Dennis G. Seton Hill University (2000). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Usability

Web Navigation: Resolving Conflicts between the Desktop and the Web

This paper summarizes a workshop at CHI98 that focused on navigational problems caused by differences in navigational models between the desktop and the Web. The goal of this workshop was to identify usability problems encountered when users move from the 'traditional' desktop to the Web and to identify ways to minimize transfer-learning problems between the two platforms.Workshop papers will soon be available online.

Fellenz, Carola, Jarmo Parkkinen and Hal Shubin. ACM SIGCHI (1998). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Usability

Web Page Design: Implications of Memory, Structure and Scent for Information Retrieval

The authors describe an experiment to see if large breadth and decreased depth is preferable, both subjectively and via performance data, while attempting to design for optimal scent throughout different structures of a web site. This work is testing the theories of Miller in his classic 'The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two.'

Czerwinski, Mary and Kevin Larson. Microsoft (1998). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Usability

Website Navigation is Useful

Although users tend to navigate websites by search mechanisms or by links embedded in actual content, website navigation serves useful purposes.

Baker, Adam. Merges.net (2001). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Usability