| LED Digest 2220: Does Good Usability Make Dull Sites? |
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"Imagine if every website you visited followed the Jakob Nielson formula.
Usable, maybe, but dull as dishwater..." Lots more: 9 posts on 5 topics
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======== CONTINUING ===============================The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Registration from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com ............................................. August 8, 2006 Issue no. 2220 ............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Usability Factors [was: CSS Links...] ==-- ~ Steve Pronger "Imagine if every website you visited followed the Nielson formula. Usable maybe, but dull as dishwater." --== Site Re-design from Scratch ==-- ~ Ivan Jimenez "FrontPage is an easy-to-use HTML editor that can handle most, if not all of your tasks." ~ Rich Dudley "I would say to skip the HTML editor and go with a content managament system (CMS)." ~ R. Neilson "I have been looking at different shopping cart programs for over a year now." --== Font Sizing ==-- ~ Kathy Wilson "...if the text on a website is so small that it's difficult for me to read, I'll click away..." ~ Kerry Branham "I think we need to think more globally when developing sites..." --== Anchor Text & Linking ==-- ~ Dirk Johnson "It's trendy to make sweeping statements that sound scary to the less informed." ~ Michael Martinez "Give us a query where this happens. That's all it takes." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Site Tracking Tools ==-- ~ Beth M. Durkee From: Steve Pronger Subject: Usability Factors [was: CSS links] > Item 2 on [Jakob Nielson's] list was "Non-Standard Links" > where it states "Violating common expectations for how links > work is a sure way to confuse and delay users, and might > prevent them from being able to use your site." - Tom Aman, LED 2219 This doesn't seem to bother Microsoft. Just have a look at MSN's home page. Mr Nielsen obviously knows a lot about usability, but it seems to me his concept is taking it to the extreme, at the expense of any sort of design integrity. Would you really want your commercial website to look like this: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/designmistakes.html? View that page on a high res monitor in an expanded window, where the text spreads right across the screen with no graphics to break it up. I don't find it easy to read at all. Imagine if MSN was designed, or perhaps I should say non-designed, in the Neilson manner. What sort of image would that impart to the visitor? Imagine if every website you visited followed the Nielson formula. Usable maybe, but dull as dishwater. The Web is a vibrant, colorful environment. Surely we can make sites usable without sacrificing some degree of design flair. I think common expectations on how links work have changed in the last decade. Even people who are taught that all links are blue and underlined soon realize that this isn't actually the case. As long as your links are consistent the great majority of users will navigate your site just fine. Steve Pronger http://www.stevepronger.com -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Ivan Jimenez Subject: Re-Design > ... if I provide my "wish list" could you come up with > some recommendations? I think I will need to buy > a HTML editor... but which one? - Nancy Schettler, LED 2219 Hello Nancy, Regarding your domain name, GoDaddy offers a free forwarding service for domains hosted by them that uses framing so you can hide that long Homestead URL. This of course, is only a temporary solution since it does little good for your search optimization efforts. For the long-term, get an inexpensive hosting plan (this digest is sponsored by a provider that can help in that area) that'll suit your needs. If you don't already -- from a non-designer's stand-point, Microsoft FrontPage is an easy-to-use HTML editor that can handle most, if not all of your tasks. Personally, I like to code myself rather than letting FrontPage create the code for me -- it tends to add extra code that you don't really need weighing your site down. Know HTML, I suggest you learn quickly. Hold on, let me emphasize that. Learn Q-U-I-C-K-L-Y. Here's a great tutorial: http://www.davesite.com/webstation/html/ (there are tons of ads you'll need to ignore but hey, the tutorial is free!) As far as SEO goes, I offer an affordable bare-bones solution for do-it-yourselfers that I'd be more than happy to tell you more about if you choose to go that route. All the best! Ivan Jimenez http://www.smarterclicks.com ij, smarterclicks.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Richard J. Dudley Subject: Re-design I would say to skip the HTML editor and go with a content managament system (CMS). A CMS uses a rich text editor for content, and can have functionality added via free or low cost modules. One of the most popular is the free DotNetNuke (www.dotnetnuke.com). Hosts such as Discount ASP (discountasp.Net) or Server Intellect (serverintellect.Com) will install it for you when you set up a hosting plan. DNN has several books available through Amazon, including a "for dummies" out soon. You can have DNN set up with a temporary URL, and migrate your content page by page. When you're done, update your nameservers and your new site will be live in about a day, no downtime. Rich Dudley rjdudley.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: R. Neilson Subject: Re-design Nancy I feel for your predicament. I have been using Miva merchant thru my current ISP, but I do have total control over my domain name so I can easily move it where ever I want. While Miva has almost all the features you want I have been having problems with my customers that use paypal. The current (Miva 4.22) version my ISP has available requires the customer to enter into paypal to pay and then go back to my website to complete checkout. Lately a number of my customers pay me but fail to go back to complete checkout and then I have there money but no record of what they were ordering or where to ship to only an e-mail. My ISP is checking into plug ins that are available to correct this problem and/or considering a completly new shopping cart program. After a month they still have not fixed the problem. The thought of having to redo my whole store scares me to death. I have invested hundreds if not thousands of hours over the years getting all the data and photos in my shopping cart program. I have been looking at different shopping cart programs for over a year now. Most are in the $800-1000 price range for a good program. I have checked out the freebies and they just don't do what I want and would cause more problems then they would solve. I have considered buying Miva on my own and customize my website with the plugins I want but currntly don't see this as working with my current ISP. Good luck with you upgrades. I might suggest working with a shopping cart program you can work offline on and then upload on a set day and time so you don't have any downtime with your website. I am not the techie type to tell you how but I bet there are others on the list that can. I would love to know in case I have to go this route myself. R. Neilson H. L. Supply www.hansons.net -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Kathy Wilson Subject: Font sizing > ... other than very techy people, who really knows > how to change font sizes on a site anyway? It would > be an interesting study to see how many people > are really affected by this aspect of websites. - Kerry Branham, LED 2218 Who knows how to change font sizes? The boomers, who are now of an age where their eyesight presents a challenge for them, are quickly learning how to change font sizes in order to read the content of some websites. I, being one of them, recently had cause to do this when I went to a website whose font size appeared so small on my 800x600 monitor screen that the text looked like Greek. In the past I've even resorted to printing a web page in order to be able to read it. Important note: if the text on a website is so small that it's difficult for me to read, I'll click away to another website where the designer cares more about ease of usability and less about having control over the size of the font. As a website owner and/or designer, how many people do you want to shoo away because they can't read your message? I can't understand why anyone would spend time and money to create a website and work to get it placed well on the search engines only to chase people away because they can't read the message on the webpages. Yes, I agree, it would be an interesting study to see how many people find small text annoying and difficult to read. Here's my "yes" vote to being affected as a website visitor. I also vote "yes" to being affected as a website designer and owner. Love, Kathy Wilson http://www.under-one-roof.net Life Purpose Coaching ~ Spiritual Teaching ~ Vibrational Healing -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Kerry Branham Subject: Font sizing It appears that my previous post on font sizing [issue 2218] has sparked some discussion. That's great! That was my intention. Please understand that even though I may have written my post to spark a bit of controversy, I was not advocating that you should never be concerned with font size. If you have the time and the skills to give the viewer an easy to use option of font size, or make sure the fonts are scalable for all browsers, PC's, Mac's, etc., then I say, "Go for it!". What I was getting at is that there are many people, who just may be your customers, that barely know how to access the web and browse. Heck, we may need to look at changing the way we do websites altogether as the Internet evolves, and things become more interactive. When Internet II comes available for the general public will we still have static websites as now? Anyway, getting back to the purpose for my original post, I think we need to think more globally when developing sites rather than focusing so much attention on just one thing. And to answer Judith's question from LED 2219, > I can change [font sizing] in a couple of > keystrokes -- how do you do it in one? If you hold down your <CTRL> key and scroll your mouse wheel your fonts will grow larger or smaller if the site was developed using fonts that are resizable. Ok, so technically it's not exactly one keystroke, rather a keystroke and mouse function, but it's close. Kerry Branham K-S Marketing kib[AT]ksmnet.com -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Dirk Johnson Subject: Linking I can fully appreciate these statements from John Barendrecht in LED 2219: > SEO is a complex issue and for almost every hard and fast rule, > there is an exception... Most of us on this list have neither the > time nor resources to "scientifically analyze" and are merely > stating opinions. I would almost go so far as to say since no one > has reverse engineered the Google algorithm that most SEO are > stating facts and rules that they could not prove (absolutely). Exactly. Algorithm speculation has been rampant in the upper echelons of the SEO community for a long while. It's trendy to make sweeping statements that sound scary to the less informed. Some of these people like to be the first to make some kind of wild claim, and then have others jump on that bandwagon. The latest SEO trend is to try to identify an algorithm change that nobody else has yet seen. If you read the SEO forums, you'd think that there is an algorithm adjustment every weekend. Parsing the perceived change is a sport. Out of this mob mentality come articles that usually start out with the claim that "many of the leading SEO specialists now believe (insert the latest theory here)...". It all sounds so well-studied and believable, but most of it is just groundless. It reminds us all that once upon a time, many of the world's "respected" scientists steadfastly believed that the world was flat, and disagreeing with them was heresy. That is one of the reasons that I say repeatedly that almost all of what is published about linking and SEO is just bunk. Most all of it carries some form of "absolutism" in it's presentation. It's very easy to find exceptions to the absolutism, and the exceptions are bountiful enough to allow the wholesale dismissal of the latest "theory". I can't tell you how many times I have read some new theory, and then I say to myself that I easily can provide 100 examples that refute it. The search forums are now full of posts and counter-posts asking for "proof" of someone's stated position. In this business, there is no proof, in a truly scientific context, and there never will be any. The variables are vast. All kinds of whacky SEO tactics and linking games can work in certain situations. Anyone can say anything, and find something to support it, in some way. But we must look at real search results to see what works, and then, as far as linking goes, we must look closely at the link profiles of the successful and unsuccessful sites. You have to do it over a long time, for the same keywords, to see how shifts in rankings take place. The more results you look at, the more that the reliable trends emerge. Doing that also provides a real defense against the fads and latest trends. Perspective is a very empowering thing in this business. As I have said before, the more complex and gamey the strategy and tactics, the more off-track it is. All of this is really very simple. Legitimate, relevant linking with other legitimate sites, both into and out of a site, and done with some real determination, is very hard to beat, over time. It's also the hardest type of linking to fake. It costs money and it takes time to establish it, and it's the right thing to do from a marketing perspective. Can I "prove" it? I am not in the business of writing research reports. But I can certainly show examples of it long enough to exhaust anyone who is willing to look into it with an open mind. At some point it becomes very apparent what works reliably over a long time. But there are always exceptions. Best regards, Dirk Johnson, Partner - Operations DomainDrivers LLC www.domaindrivers.com www.linkstrategy.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Michael Martinez Subject: Linking > ... I purposely misspelled the 'alt' text for an image. Now > I am ranked #2 for a popular term, #1 for proper spelling. > This site has no outbound links and no link exchange, > so any inbound links are accidental. - John Barendrecht, LED 2219 Apparently, we're to be persuaded by one unsupported personal anecdote after another that 1 link will overwhelm all other unconsidered factors in the Google algorithm. That dog won't hunt. But I'll point out again that my original comment referred to the "miserable failure" rankings, which are driven by thousands of deliberately placed links. Search engine rankings are not dependent upon what you do or don't do. They are dependent, in general, upon four classes of factors: 1) Your pages 2) Everyone else's pages 3) User queries 4) The search engines' INDEXING and RANKING algorithms (which are separate functions) Where Google is concerned, linkage has never carried the kind of weight people in the SEO community have believed it did. A lot of people have misunderstood what Google does, despite the fact that they pretty much explain what they do in detail. Still, because a few influencers in the SEO community propagated a load of hogwash about PageRank and Google for years, we're now being inundated with the same nonsense over and over again from every direction. > I would almost go so far as to say since no one has > reverse engineered the Google algorithm that most > SEO are stating facts and rules that they could not prove > (absolutely). Well, since Google has published a great deal of information about its algorithm, it's easy enough to check SEO statements against facts. I'm not particularly interested in "opinions", as they do little to advance the knowledge of the SEO community. In theory, 1 link can push a page over the top, just as one bold or strong tag, just as a title tag can, just as (true, non-Toolbar) PageRank can, just as any other of the 200+ signals or 300+ mechanisms Google claims to use for rankings can push a page over the top. If anyone wants to argue that 1 link can make all the difference in the world, show us. Give us a query where this happens. That's all it takes. If someone shares a query that produces some interesting results, a lot of people have the opportunity to investigate the query and maybe, possibly, one or more people will be able to figure out the general causes behind the results. You don't have to reverse engineer a well-documented algorithm to understand that much. If someone claims "I achieved number X with 1 link" and they don't share a query to back up their claim, I'm not going to be impressed, persuaded, or convinced. I just don't buy that kind of so-called analysis, judgement, or opinion. Caveat emptor: Let the buyer beware. Michael Martinez "Cuando Maria canta, canta para mi" http://www.michael-martinez.com/ http://michael-martinez.blogspot.com/ ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Beth Durkee Subject: Site Tracking Tools What would be a good recommendation for the next level of web site hit tracking tools for someone moving past the free hit trackers and counters? We typically want to see referrers, what pages are being viewed, entry and exit pages, etc. I appreciate all comments / info. Thanks, Beth M. Durkee, CIW, Principal Eyeland Creations Great Impression Services for Business Communication www.eyelandcreations.com
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