You can create a website that attracts customers, not repels them, with a little common sense advice. Everyone wants an attractive professional looking website. But too often businesses think they need a GLITZY site with all the bells and whistles when what they really need is a functional site t...

One of the most popular questions we hear from web designers and usability professionals is: "How many users is enough when conducting usability tests?" Until recently, we had believed -- and told our clients -- that it wasn't usually necessary to test with more than eight users. We based our rec...

With so many different resolutions (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, etc.), browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc.), and platforms (Windows, Mac, etc.) in use, it is very difficult to design a page that looks good (or at least looks the same) in all configurations. To design a page that looks goo...

Most of us already know it's good business to have a presence on the World Wide Web. Since millions of people from all over the world use the Web each day, having a web site is one of the best ways to increase market share and audience reach. However, even companies with a web site could be missing....

When you write for a web page there is a great attraction for using hyper-links. Even I cannot resist the temptation of linking different pages to a single paragraph just to encapsulate lots of information in short text. Although a web page is mostly written in a hyper-text language, it does not ...

Many people have email newsletter as an addition to their web site. They want to retain their visitors by offering them to subscribe to their newsletter. This way they ensure that they will have repeat visits. In order to have more subscriptions to your newsletter people need to be convinced to beco...

Navigation must be simple. Since it's the backbone of your site, it's imperative that visitors be able to understand it. Here are two tips on how to make simplicity a reality in your site: 1. Your link titles need to be understandable. Visitors need to know exactly what link to click on for t.....

"Know Your Users" is the mantra of any good designer. Yet, *what* should you actually know about your users? Over the years, we've studied the usability of hundreds of product and web site designs. We've seen designs that were incredibly effective for users and designs that fell tremendously ...

The other day I saw this photograph in a magazine which showed a steaming tea cattle, with its handle on the same side as its nozzle [or the mouth, or whatever it is called], with a caption, "A Sadistic Product Design." In the same way, there are sites that are, sometimes it seems, specifically de.....

Choosing a font is something that most of us give little thought to. After all, most fonts are more or less the same, right? Let's face it, most writing is presented in a stock-standard font like Times New Roman or Arial. Why is the choice of font important? There are many differences between ....