Michael Haislip: Professional Millionaire

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Sometimes I feel like the lone voice in the woods, preaching against the sins of web design. Then I remember that somewhere out there, Jakob Nielsen is waging the war for web usability along with me.

For those who don’t know, Jakob Nielsen is the guru of web usability. His Alertbox column, since 1996, has proclaimed the holiness of proper web usability.

Let’s revisit some of his holy scripture, shall we:

1. Hyped web stories are irrelevant

Nielsen said in 2006, “it’s far better to emphasize simplicity and quality than to chase buzzwords.” I really could not agree more. Remember that damned Apple iPhone flood that dominated every news source on the Web? Yeah, that’s the sort of story he was talking about. And has anyone given any thought to it since then? No, because it was an irrelevant story. It was just another freaking phone. Way to do the work of Apple’s marketing department, Intarwebs.

Site that violates this rule: Digg, Slashdot, et al.

Site that follows this rule: Mine

2. Design flexible layouts that flow with screen size

I know, I know. The common myth is that everyone is using massive flat-screen monitors now, so why should screen size matter anymore, right? Unfortunately, no. I myself use an 800×600 CRT monitor. So does my Grandma. So does one of the computer labs at my local university.

We don’t all own the latest, greatest technology. My video card doesn’t even allow resolutions over 1024×780, and even then the text is unreadable.

And have you considered what your site will look like on a mobile device with a 3-inch screen?

Site that violates this rule:kloudiia.com

Site that follows this rule: Jane May Blogs

3. Screw crappy link anchor text / not using link titles
Really, this has been driving me insane for years. Not only do people still insist on making pointless words such as “click here” or “this” or god-knows-what-else into links, they still don’t use link titles. Link titles are one of the simplest improvements you can make. Hover over some of the links in this post. Go ahead. I’ll wait…

See, the little yellow tooltip box was the link title. It gives a fairly good description of what the user will find on the other end of that link, especially if the anchor text is nondescriptive. Here’s a brief tutorial on link titles.

The fact is, people will be more willing to click if they know where they are going.

Site that violates this rule: Take More Risks

Site that follows this rule: None that I could find; if you use link titles, let me know in the comments and I will link to you just to spite everyone else

4. Don’t use partial content in the RSS feed

In reality, opening a new browser window to view the rest of a blog entry only takes 0.00034 joules of energy (for you anal-retentive physicists, that was a joke). However, somewhere in the human mind, that microscopic bit of effort is mutated into a herculean task on par with digging the Panama Canal. “My God,” the readers cry, “how can this tyrant expect us to click something … ON THE INTERNET!” Then they all revolt and burn you in effigy. It isn’t pretty.

In short, use full feeds, please.

Site that violates this rule: Lew Rockwell Blog

Site that follows this rule: Mine. Sign up for my RSS feed.

5. Avoid inline videos

Yes, everyone loves to post YouTube videos in their blog posts nowadays. You know what? Stop it. You are losing search engine traffic and probably some regular readers. Let’s say I’m a lowly Google-using peon who stumbles onto your site. So, I’m sitting there waiting for your Paris Hilton Sex Tape page to load. And I’m still waiting. And waiting some more. Because there are 7 damn YouTube clips loading over my crappy DSL connection (or maybe my crappy dial-up connection, depending on where I’m connecting from). Yes, a lot of people still use dial-up. Also, did I mention that all that embedded Flash is using most of my crappy PC’s CPU and RAM?

Always give users the option to initiate multimedia on their own. If it’s such an awesome YouTube clip, just link to the YouTube page. Same thing, less pissed of surfers.

Site that violates this rule: Every damn blog on Earth

Conclusion

These tips are just simple ways to make the user experience on your site or blog much better. A pissed-off reader won’t be a reader for long.