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Archive for the 'design'

Trend: clutter, with oversized navigation

April 19

Hello, Thank you for visiting - I hope that you will find useful information. Leave a comment but if you have any comments on the subject.

Neckermann.at navigation

There is indeed long been a small trend to oversized overlay navigation ions on sites involve. I shall take up briefly in this post, because I see great potential here. By appropriate navigation elements can represent very large menu structures clearly. But not only the sheer number of categories and sub-pages can be a decisive element. So I've picked out a few examples and try to highlight the positive aspects of this case.

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Posted in Design & Usability

Navigation metaphors: Visualize menu items

November 25

Continuation of "navigation design - the architecture right place."

Optically in the creation of navigation systems used very often metaphors. The most well-known metaphor is the metaphor for office operating systems. Unlike operating systems, no uniform standard for websites has prevailed. Very often highly abstract navigation models used.

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Posted in Graphics & Design

Navigation Design - The right architecture will find!

November 23

Among the most important elements of a website is definitely the navigation, because the best content avail little if they can not be found. Target when there is an intuitive navigation design, the target audience and content relevant to developing menus.

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Posted in Design & Usability

Content and much less space - means against invited Sites!

May 6

This time it's about the old theme: on the one hand, a site modern, clean and especially seem clear, the other hand, must be placed directly on the homepage of the most diverse reasons, plenty of content. Below I am going a few ways to save space, clear and understandable to transport relatively large number of contents.

Klein is very large
A similar approach has small elements on mouseover or click to enlarge. This is especially useful for maps to be placed even on the home screen. A small card is placed on the website. This small map you can see where you are already grossly befindet.So especially in tourist areas is something very popular. Finally, even the guests, tourist area do not know know exactly where is the appropriate place. Once you move your mouse over the map, the map is enlarged and displayed on the content of the website. Now it is possible to show more details and Quick guide to attractions, live cams, etc. to offer.

Very nice having the Tourism Organisation of Montenegro solved:

Montenegro: geographical navigation

Slideshows and Teaser
Slideshows and rotating teaser images have been used very often. Especially in online shops is this kind of product or campaign presentation particularly popular. Jump bythe animated images of the surface can be utilized multiple times and transported in accordance with more information. It should be noted, however, that it does not exaggerate with the animation and the user is also a possible alternative to the direct call of a teaser. Nothing is more annoying than when you want to watch a teaser but must wait up to 5 different "gone through" are.

Example:
LA Daily News
Graphically, we can not solve sure nice, but how we are here very much.

L.A. Daily News Teaser

LA Daily News Teaser

Random effect
Another possibility is always present an element at random from a pool of several. This can be a product from an online store, a part of the spa hotel or a simple banner ads. This option has the positive effect that the user has the feeling that something is happening on the site and thus a rather sparse data maintenance can conceal something. However, it should be noted that this may confuse the user as well. It can happen quite possible that a user discovers a beautiful product at an online shop and in the evening will examine the product of this with his family again and order. Only stupid if this product was displayed at random and the user will no longer be found on the familiar position for him. So you see what I was getting at ... if operating with random representations should also provide a link or a list of all possible surfaces, so that the recovery is somewhat easier.

Show content only when needed
Often it is not at all necessary to view content immediately. Using Javascript / Ajax, there are now many ways to have very good data reload or display them when needed. Though it was acquired by learning user behavior is something Speaks Against a nice elegant way to save space. However, inexperienced users are quite overwhelmed by such proprietary uses. Are therefore not necessarily put suitable for all audiences and that a somewhat larger effort in usability tests.

Sun benefit GMX for example, those opportunities to even more content on the home page to accommodate. On the home is to "tabbed boxes" worked on the offered index tabs can be quickly switched to the desired topic. In addition, in the box "Focus", the news only on mouseover in a larger size shown.

Platz sparen bei Gmx.de

Save space in Gmx.de

Conclusion:
Overloaded sites are neither aesthetically nor can they be operating very well, because users are often overwhelmed by the flood of information. However, if you have no choice but to bring a lot of information in a small space needs, it makes sense to help with one of the concepts presented.

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Posted in Design & Usability

Navigation Architecture: Show the user where he is!

April 28

It has in recent years already gotten around that we will show users where they are and so a user can easily orient within a site. But as easy as it sounds, this commandment is so often ignored or is there some subtleties here that have not yet gotten around everywhere.

Active menu item to select
The standard now requires to select active menu items. Here, this selection is to make visually evident. The difference between selecting andnot selected navigation elements should be immediately recognizable at a glance. In addition, it should be noted that work is in all levels with navigation highlighting. Again and again we see sites where the main menu item is selected well, but from the second or third level of the optical chaos breaks out.

Breadcrumb Navigation integrate
Navigation. The more complex and deeper navigation structure of a website is built, the more important is a breadcrumb navigation. Thereby you can create some problems from the neck and has a global point of reference created for the user. darstellen. However, a breadcrumb navigation should never be the only option. In my view, are the "bread crumbs" for quick reference in an emergency and urged users can also abuse this to navigate.

Each side of their menu
Each page should be assigned to a menu item. Especially on the front page one often sees the sub-items are displayed in the menu anywhere. This results in pages that are more or less in the "empty air" space. Classic examples include, for example, pages that link to the home page a banner, but then no menu item to be assigned. The user clicks on the corresponding banner and then has no clue where he is. At the same time, the "Home" page is only one page and should not contain numerous sub-sites.

Back button will not forget!
A classic: the site should not use the "Back" buttons work in the browser. Therefore, strictly implement back buttons in the right places. With the right places, I think that the button should appear only as where you need it. Such a link is back on the home page rather pointless. Only on the detail pages for a "read more" link, not accessible from the menu's are in my view makes sense.

Integrated Sitemaps
Another way to give the user a good overview of the side structure provide integrated sitemaps. die man in den letzten Jahren immer öfters sieht. By that I mean this global, integrated in the footer to the Sitemaps in recent years seen more often. Zwecken nutzen. Honestly I have no idea what you call those things officially, but these ichfinde pretty handy, and, incidentally, these sitemaps to use good SEO purposes.

Conclusion:
These were some tips to guide the user through the site to better and less internetafine users to run through the site without frustration. in bestehende Websites eingebaut werden sollen. Of course, the whole thing with the increasing complexity and depth of navigation more difficult and particularly tricky when it is nachträgich navigation levels in existing sites will be installed. It is better to take into account at the beginning of a project has a level more.

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Posted in Design & Usability

Design of landing pages (Part 2)

April 7

We continue with the sequel on landing pages.

This post is part 2 of a three-part series:
Rough Concept: economy, generate traffic (Part 1)
Detailed concept: Render (Part 2)
Evaluating, optimizing and Practice (Part 3)

Detailed concept: Render (Part 2)
The second part deals with the detailed design of the landing page. This of course depends very much on the purpose of their website. Basically one can say that (looks at branding campaigns, there is something different) the following very important key elements for sales-oriented landing pages are:

Avoid distractions
On the landing page, everything should be on the defined goal oriented. For example, if a product is sold, then it should be avoided other products or provide additional links to other websites. This would be a risk that the user is distracted too high. For this reason, a landing page is not even involved in the actual corporate site or the main navigation of the corporate Web site can be integrated on the landing page. If there be a cross-linking or main navigation needs, these should be distinguished optically clear. The user has to recognize at a glance that the links will take away from the landing page and has nothing to do with the actual action have. This may appear as optically hidden by a navigation, the menu items only when mouseover on a button "Company Website", or (integrated main navigation with low opacity on mouseover, the opacity is increased to a normal value) through a low contrast can be achieved.

On the question of whether a landing page is to be integrated into the actual site, there is also a contrary opinion. Representatives of this view argue that returns are not user subsequently on the landing page because they are not firmly anchored in the site. Yet I see landing pages always be a separate page, however, of the corporate Web site can be linked very supportive and also to.

Meet the expectations
If the user had to click on a switched on the landing page, this is usually an expectation. These expectations should be met. This means that the wording should be adapted to the Adwords campaign and used the images or the whole design of the graphical advertising should be adapted.

Call to Action
Call to Action describes a prominent message that the user may use the title. Like this are striking, using buttons with a clear request (for an order, etc.). Here, the graphic design is very important. The respective elements must stand out clearly as a clickable and discoverable.

Target group oriented design
Another very important point is the target group-oriented design of the landing page. So specific age should be taken into consideration and computer affinity. For senior citizens as target group, it makes perfect sense points such as accessibility, ease of use, large fonts, etc. to attach more importance than at a site for teens.

Convey seriousness
The whole landing page must be serious and also act serios. Therefore, in any case, imprint, contact details and, if present, e-commerce seal of approval to be integrated. In addition, testimonials and reviews seem positive.

Easy to operate
The ordering process must be very easy to use. Any lack of clarity can confuse potential customers and lead to a sale demolition. Therefore should be taken to ensure that the customer with as few clicks and a minimum number of filled form fields reach their objective.

Additional incentives
If the possibility of additional incentives for our customers is to create should be utilized. Thus, special offers and coupons at any initial order, etc. are prominently announced. But also a temporal shortage can have a positive impact on your conversion rate. See also my article: " shortage as a means to increase sales "

Reference to other offers
Now that's a contradiction to the first point, but depending on the offer, it can be quite useful at the end of the page to point to other offers. According to the motto: "Does this product not meet your expectations? Browse more in our offerings. "Here, however, important that this call does not compete with the product on the landing page is. Would offer such a thing as the end of a list of several products. This allows a visitor to the landing page could not be convinced, but may be excited for another product.

Other points I have this in a separate article, " Optimization of registration processes, "published in my blog.

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Posted in eCommerce , eMarketing