threep thinks, pauses and says:
"ok, although there aren't any real (enforcable) rules that apply to webpages, there are some guidelines. I try to adhere to them so closely, that i regard them as rules.
zeldman says in his book:
quote:
It?s widely agreed, even by people who are not idiots, that web users are
driven by a desire for fast gratification. If they can?t find what they?re look-ing
for within three clicks, they might move on to somebody else?s site.
Hence the so-called ?Three-Click Rule,? which, as you might expect, states
that users should ideally be able to reach their intended destination within
three mouse clicks.
...and further on:
quote:
The Rule of Five postulates that complex, multi-layered menus offering
more than five main choices tend to confuse web users. A glance back at
Figure 3.5 should confirm the common sense behind this ?rule.? The main
menu at Overstock.com offers not five, not six, not seven, but a whopping
twelve main categories to choose from. (And that?s not even counting the
strange tagline area that is inexplicably designed to resemble a clickable
menu button.) Overstock.com is so busy offering everything that many
users will be hard pressed to find anything.
...i would highly recommend either buying the book, or being a tightass, and d'loading the free sample chapter.
now, onto your site - it follows the 'three click rule' nicely. But a quick note on this rule - it can be 4 or 5 clicks, but the user has to feel that they are getting somewhere. they have to be sure that by clicking on 'used cars', 'sedan', then 'toyota', they will soon get the listings for toyota camrys within their price range. by three clicks, they have to feel like they have created some navigational momentum.
onto the 'rule of five'. by having ten options, you are breaking this rule... but this rule can be very flexible.
basically, to present 10 options to a user, with no grouping, they must fully digest what each option would present to them, compare them and determine which of the 10 is the most likely to take them where they want to go. most impatient brains cannot be bothered doing this. as a result, you lose people quickly.
(time for the big) however, this rule can be contorted quite a bit - if you were to say that there are 10 maing section links on your homepage, 2 of them are of the contact us/faq type variety, well, they go in their own section, and the remaining 8 can be divided into two groups of four, well, you're laughing. if people are after non-structured information, like just finding out a few faq's, or contacting the company, they will look away from the main navigation area - where they would find their structured info - and look for the appropriate link. otherwise, they will look at the navigation area, and see links grouped into two categories - 'buying a car' and 'selling a car' - each with four links.
but first, they only see two categories, and they know that they are selling a car - now only four links are important to them. four links can easily be read, almost at once, and the most suitable option can just as easily be determined.
...to finish up quickly, i'll just stress the importance of intuitive site design. you NEED user acceptance testing - grab the dumbest employee in the company - that ISN'T in IT, and tell them to use your site to find the price of a gorilla suit. if they can do so in under 5 clicks, and on their first descent into the navigational hierarchy, then the site is designed well. if they must keep returning to the homepage, clicking a few times, then return to the homepage to try again, its time to reconsider how you present and organise your information. if you don't sell gorilla suits, this may not be a concern."
threep uses his elongated arms to scratch his behind, then wanders off in search of bananas.
posted 06-28-2001 03:39
