Website Behavior Design Guidelines

Provide Feedback

Provide feedback for all user requests and inputs:

• Clicked buttons and links should change their apprearance unless the response will be essentially instantaneous.
• Responses that will take a significant time should be signified by some kind of progress meter and estimate of time until completion.

Rationale:

• It is disconcerting for a user to request a response from the application and not know whether or not the request was sent.

Provide Shortcuts

Provide experienced users with alternative shortcuts for repetative tasks.

Rationale:

• Shortcuts avoid informational messages and lengthy dialogs that experienced users find unnecessary.
• Although useful for beginners, such help features decrease the productivity of experienced users who want to maximize their productivity at the cost of a less intutitive user interface.

Minimize Memory Load

Minimize the amount of information that the user must memorize:

• Automatically populate content so that the users does not have to enter information that the application already knows or can obtain automatically.
• Never have the user enter the same information twice.

Rationale:

• This increases user productivity.
• This minimizes data entry errors.

Forms

Optimize data input forms:

• Line up the contents on forms.
• Identify mandatory contents (e.g., with an asterix).
• Use tool tips to provide clarifying information.

Rationale:

• This makes forms easier to use, minimizes human error, and makes them look more professional.

Verify User Input

Verify the user's input:

• Performing type checking and consistency checking on the client.
• Provide defaults for data entry fields.
• Where practical, have the user select from a list of choices rather than manually inputing information.
• Use pick lists and pull-down or pop-up menues when there are a large number of choices.
• Use radio buttons or check boxes when only a small number of choices exists.

Rationale:

• This minimizes errors.
• This increases performance by avoiding Internet communication due to input errors.

Provide Undo

Provide users with ways to undo their actions:

• For every user action, provide an undo capability.
• For every long transaction of actions, provide a roll back capability.
• Warn users and have them confirm their request if it cannot be undone.

Rationale:

• Users make mistakes and wish to be able to undo them.

Plug-ins

Minimize the use of plug-ins:

• Do not assume that each user has every plug-in.
• Assume that most users will not stop what they are doing to download a necessary plugin just to see some irrelevant whizbang effect.
• If you must use plug-ins, then use JavaScript to determine if the user's browser supports your plug-ins and provide a version without plug-ins for those users whose browsers do not support them.

Rationale:

• Not every browser supports every plug-in.
• Most users are not willing to download and install plug-ins before being able to use a website.

Animations

Ensure the use of animations is appropriate:

• Avoid more than one animation per webpage.
• Only use animations that relate to the content of the webpage.
• Do not endlessly loop animations and video.

Rationale:

• Less is often more.
• Multiple animations per page detract from the content.
• Endless animations and videos can be very annoying.

Page Copying

For webpages that contain large amounts of textual or useful public-domain content, provide an easy way for users to:

• Print the contents.
• Email the contents.
• Save the contents to a file.

Rationale:

• Large amounts of text are easier to read on paper than on most monitors.

Useful Messages

Provide useful messages:

• Ensure that alerts and error messages contain information that is useful to the users, rather than cryptic technical information for developers and maintenance personnel.
• For example, if a search query fails, provide helpful hints so that the user's next search is more likely to return the desired information.

Rationale:

• Cryptic technojargon frustrates and angers users.

Confirmation Pages

Provide an obvious conclusion page for each user task. Examples include providing a confirmation page upon completion of:

• Product ordering,
• Software downloading, and
• A stock trade.

Rationale:

• This provides the user with a sense of closure that confirms that the task is complete.

Provide Tips

Provide users with tips that help them use the system:

• Instead of a large help facility that requires significant user searching, consider providing context sensitive tips or hints.
• Keep the tips short and to the point.
• Provide examples and counter-examples where appropriate.
• Provide personalized and internationalized user tips where appropriate.

Rationale:

• Users are more likely to use tips than a large help facility.
• Tips increase user productivity and probability of success.