The employment of novel or original responses to previously familiar interface elements is a common mistake found on websites.

Although this type of error is traditionally well-intentioned, the mistake lies in discounting the familiarity that most people associate with common features of computers and existing software programs.

In fact, using conventions from the “real world” has long been an effective way to ensure a sense of familiarity in a user’s dealing with computers in general.

For instance, everyone instantly recognizes their computer “desktop” because it’s a concept from their everyday life. Using the metaphor of the top of a user’s “real world” desk is an extremely convenient method for guiding the type of behavior that is valid on their “virtual” desktop.

Familiarity is a very powerful concept when it comes to the efficacy with which users interact with their world, real or virtual. And of course, this type of convention is also very useful in the World Wide Web. 

For example, it’s very common for a website’s logo to double as a link to the site’s homepage. Now put your self in the place of a user who’s been trained by years of experience that clicking a logo will link to the website homepage and then suddenly this convention no longer applies.

Although this is a rather simple example, you can see how even something so insignificant might affect user enthusiasm for your website.

There are a ton of similar conventions that people are used to from their prior experience that should be accounted for in proper interface design. And most times, the features that break with convention will seem innovative. After doing some user-testing, however, the novelty is found to come at a steep price: user competence.

The lesson is: don’t switch up a decade’s worth of convention unless you’re sure that your users are ready for it and that the benefits of having them learn this new behavior association are greater than the additional confusion created by the unfamiliarity.

Ask yourself if you are accounting for these learned behaviors in your interface. Are you tripping your users up unintentionally by breaking with convention?  

In the field of User-Centered design there’s an oft-repeated phrase:

 ‘Designing for everyone is the same as designing for no one’

 Your purpose, as well as your design, should appeal to a targeted set of users and focus on them with a dedicated fervor.

 If what you are offering isn’t exclusive in some way then its novelty is non-existent and you’ll be scrambling for any semblance of a user-base. Even great ideas can suffer under marketing campaigns diluted to appeal to the greatest number of users.

 How do you design for a particular user demographic?

 User testing is the most effective approach to designing for a specific user demographic.

 However, even those lacking the resources or the know-how to conduct a user-study can follow some well-known conventions applicable to broad demographic groups.

 For example:

   - Older users require larger text and overly obvious navigation cues

  - Younger audiences tend to be more familiar with the web and technology in general

  - Websites geared towards multiple nationalities require convenient language translation

 Regardless of the users your website is seeking to reach, intuitive layouts and properly implemented conventions exist that will be more effective for your specific population.

 Do some testing of your own or get some help to find out what works best for your site and your purpose!

 Another extremely useful tool for evaluating the set of users your website already has is Googleä Analytics. This free utility enables you to obtain invaluable data concerning your users, such as:

 -         Browser Type

-         Screen Resolution

-         Connection Speed

-         Traffic Source (direct traffic, referring site, search engines, etc.)

-         New Versus Returning

 Evaluate your audience with whatever tools are available and then use that data to enhance your efforts!

Legitimate, non-advertising components of a web site can sometimes be mistaken for advertising through a flawed design process that has become all too common.

It’s been found that users avoid, even subconsciously, anything that looks like a banner ad or animated advertisement. This antipathy toward banner ads is better known as “banner blindness.”

In the world of ever-present advertising, including constant bombardment of annoying pop-ups and other similar style advertising, web users have begun rejecting these site elements automatically.

It seems counter-intuitive that the very elements that some designers feel the need to include (e.g. gratuitous flash banners and silly animations) for the purpose of drawing users’ attention have been discovered to have just the opposite effect.

Once you’ve drawn users to your site, you should no longer simply be trying just to get their attention with flashy advertising-style design.

When your users get to the site, show them why they’ve come, reward them with relevant content – drop the attempts at gimmickry and deliver your best message!

Writing for the web is different than writing for traditional media in many ways but there are certain rules that do cross over. For instance, ‘writing for your audience’ and ‘cite your references accurately’ are tenets of traditional writing that directly translate from material to electronic publishing.

Here are a few more basic tips before we hit the finer points of writing specifically for the medium of the web:

- Remember your target demographic and analyze how they will identify with the language used

- Don’t use slang or industry jargon in navigation cues or descriptive headers on your site

Also, keep in mind that even if your target audience is decidedly high-tech, if you design only for this group, you could miss out on potential word-of-mouth from a less-inclined population who happens to know your audience but cannot bridge the information gap.

These are some examples of rules that hold for print as well as web publication. But as many user-studies have shown, writing for the web should, for the most part, be approached very differently:

Studies have shown that the majority of web users are not even reading what they see on a website. The majority are merely skimming text and images in order to verify that they are in the correct place to find the information they are seeking.

(Note: there are obvious exceptions: blogs, news articles, etc.- this is advice for websites that are not journalistic in nature – but even these should strive for clarity and brevity).

What are the implications of these findings on writing for the web?

Simply that writing for the web should be much more clear and concise. For instance, headers and bullet points become much more important as well as something called the “inverted pyramid” approach.

The “inverted pyramid” approach can be broken down very simply:

- A headline should clearly and concisely convey the conclusion of the information to follow

- The first few sentences should serve to exemplify the conclusion through concrete examples

- Finally, all background information, used to arrive at the final conclusion, should be presented

This is likened to an inverted pyramid because it builds from the final conclusion up to the basis of the information.

Ultimately, if your users aren’t reading what you write, then there is not much use in writing lengthy explanations or expositions to convince them of your arguments. Instead, go with large headlines that succinctly convey your message and follow them with short spurts of text combined with bullets so that users’ eyes are easily directed from point to point. And do not forget to deliver your users to an immediate ‘call to action’.

Give them the information and then give them a way to use it. Consider these examples:

- If you are selling a product and you’ve just explained why it’s superior, make it obvious to the user how they may obtain this product, quickly.

- If you are espousing the opinion of a cause that needs money or volunteers to help bring its message to fruition, make it simple to donate or volunteer. In fact, you should implore them to do so!

Writing properly for the web is one of the most fundamental steps in creating user-friendly websites.

Employing the latest ‘trends’ in design and development can result in a web presence that ultimately confuses and misleads users about the purpose of the site. Getting caught up with buzzwords like “web 2.0” and similar ‘cutting edge’ concepts instead of focusing on well-known and field-tested techniques to help develop better usability and encourage customer loyalty has become all too common.

 The simple truth is that if you build a website and you don’t make sure that your users can interact in the way you desire - then it won’t matter how much time and money you spend focusing on the newest ‘most innovative’ web gadgets and fads - you will not be able to accomplish the goal of engaging and satisfying your intended user audience. Remember, stick to the basics and incorporate new technologies as they mature and only as they can make a valid contribution to enhancing your site’s primary purpose.

 A good example of a feature whose time has come is blogging. Blogging simplifies a very complex feature set that can really help your business stand out. Presenting yourself to clients as a trusted expert can be a difficult prospect but with a blog you can advertise your knowledge in an unobtrusive manner. It also turns out that the benefits are manifold, a blog will: automatically update your website - keeping you relevant, add key search engine optimization features including keyword aggregation, and give you a simple and elegant way of distributing important company messages through email, RSS feeds, and a variety of other options. If you don’t have a blog you are missing out on an invaluable way to position your company as a leader within your industry.