1. Homepage Usability By Nielsen & Tahir

2. Communicating the Site's Purpose Show the logo Include a tag line Emphasize your site’s value Emphasize high priority tasks Designate one home page Use “website” appropriately Differentiate the home page design

3. Communicating Information About Your Company Group corporate info in one area Include an “About Us” link For press coverage, include a “Press Room” link Present a unified face Include a “Contact Us” link Explain your “feedback” mechanism

4. Communicating Information About Your Company (cont.) Don’t include internal company info Include a “Privacy Policy” link Explain how the website makes money

5. Content Writing Use customer-focused language Avoid redundant content Don’t use clever phrases and lingo Use consistent style Don’t use superfluous labels Avoid single-item categories and lists Use non-breaking spaces when necessary

6. Content Writing (cont.) Use imperative language for tasks Define abbreviations and acronyms Avoid exclamation marks Use uppercase letters sparingly Avoid inappropriate use of space and punctuation

7. Revealing Content Through Examples Use examples to reveal content For each example, use a pinpoint link Provide a link to a broader category Clearly distinguish these links

8. Archives and Accessing Past Content Make it easy to access anything that has been recently featured on the homepage

9. Links Differentiate links and make them scannable Don’t use “Click Here” as a link Don’t use generic “More…” as a link Use visited and unvisited link colors Don’t use “Links” to label links Identify non-web page links

10. Navigation Locate the primary navigation area in a highly noticeable place Group similar items together Don’t provide multiple navigation areas for the same type of links Don’t include an active link to the home page

11. Navigation (cont.) Don’t use made-up words for navigation categories If you have a shopping cart, include a link to it Use icons for navigation sparingly

12. Search Provide an input box Make the input box wide enough Use a “Search” button to the right of the box Provide a link to an advanced search Search the entire site by default Don’t offer a “Search the Web” feature

13. Tools and Task Shortcuts Offer direct access to high-priority tasks Don’t include unrelated tools Don’t reproduce browser functionality

14. Graphics and Animation Use graphics to show content Label unclear graphics and photos Edit photos and diagrams appropriately Avoid watermark graphics Don’t use gratuitous animation Never animate critical elements Let users choose to see animated intro

15. Graphic Design Limit font styles and text formatting Use high-contrast text and background Avoid horizontal scrolling at 800x600 Critical elements should be “above the fold” Use a liquid layout Use logos judiciously

16. UI Widgets Never use dropdown menus, selection lists, text boxes, etc. for parts of the screen that you don’t want people to click Avoid using multiple text entry boxes on the homepage Use drop-down menus sparingly

17. Window Titles Begin with information-carrying word Don’t include the top-level domain name, e.g., “.com” Don’t include “homepage” Include a short description, maybe the tag line Limit titles to 7 or 8 words

18. URLs Company web address should be www.company.com www.company.com Use foreign country’s top-level domain name if appropriate Try to register alternate spellings of site name Redirect alternate spellings to one site

19. News and Press Releases Headlines should be short, but descriptive Write short summaries Link headlines to the full news story Generally, don’t include the date and time of the article in the summary

20. Popup Windows and Staging Pages Take users to the “real” homepage Splash screens must die Avoid popup windows Don’t use geographical routing pages unless your site is in multiple languages

21. Advertising Keep ads for other companies on the periphery of the page Keep them small and discreet Outside the standard banner area, label ads as such Distinguish between ad and content style

22. Welcomes Don’t literally welcome users to your site Consider using a tag line

23. Technical Problems and Emergencies Inform users of problems Have an emergency plan for critical content

24. Credits Don’t waste space on the homepage for credits Exercise restraint in displaying awards won by your website

25. Page Reload and Refresh Don’t automatically refresh the homepage When doing a refresh, update only the content that has changed

26. Customization If you provide for customization, don’t use generic choices before the user has selected any Don’t permit customization of basic User Interface design, e.g., color scheme

27. Gathering Customer Data Explain the benefits of registration Explain the frequency of newsletters or e-mail before registration

28. Fostering Community If you have chat or discussion features, don’t show generic links to them – describe them Don’t offer a “Guestbook”

29. Dates and Times Show dates and times for time-sensitive info only, e.g., stock quotes Show users the time that content was last updated Include the time zone Use standard abbreviations, e.g., p.m. Spell out the month or use month abbreviations – not 01/02/03

30. Stock Quotes and Displaying Numbers Give the percentage of change, not just the points gained or lost Spell out abbreviations Use a thousands separator for numbers with 5 or more digits, e.g., 53,000 Align decimal points when showing columns of numbers

31. Homepage Design Statistics For the 50 homepages in the book

32. Download Time With regular analog modem, average download time was 26 seconds Recommended: 10 seconds 28% - 10 seconds or less 26% - 30 seconds or more

33. Basic Page Layout Page width Median – 770 pixels Liquid versus frozen layout Liquid – 18% Page length Median – 1018 pixels (two full screens) Frames only 4% used frames

34. Fundamental Page Design Elements Logo placement Upper left – 84% Logo size 5,485 pixels (74 pixels square) Search 14% did not have a search feature Of those that had it, 81% used a box

35. Fundamental Page Design Elements (cont.) Search placement Upper right35% Upper left 30% Search label Search 42% Go 40% Width of search box Median – 110 pixels, or 18 characters

36. Navigation Navigation scheme Left-hand rail30% Tabs30% Links across top18% Categories in middle12% Pull-down menus10% Footer navigation 80% had links across bottom of page

37. Navigation (cont.) Site Map 48% had site maps Splash pages 6% had splash pages

38. Frequent Features Sign In 52% permitted users to sign in About Us 84% had a link for more company info Contact Info 90% had more contact info available Privacy Policy 86% had a link to a privacy policy

39. Frequent Features (cont.) Job Openings 74% had a link to job info Help 54% had a help feature

40. Graphics and Multimedia Pictures Median number per homepage – 3 ALT Text 42% used ALT text Music 3% played music upon entry Animation 30% included some animation

41. Advertising External Advertising 46% had ads for other companies Median number of ads – 3 Internal Advertising 84% promoted their own products or services Median number of ads – 4.5

42. Typography Body Text and Background Colors 72% used black text (8% blue, 8% gray) 84% used white background 4% use white text on black background Median font size – 12 point 96% used a sans serif font

43. Typography (cont.) Link Formatting 80% used underlined links 60% used blue links (12% black) 74% changed the color of visited links 54% used purple for visited links 16% light blue 11% gray