how to make your website not ugly: 10 simple ux tenets for non-designers
TRANSCRIPT
How to Make Your Website Not Ugly
10 Simple UX Tenets for Non-Designers
Hilary Stohs-KrauseTen Forward Consulting in Madison, WI
Twitter: @hilarysk
About meFormer journalist (including
newspaper designer)
Full-stack developer in Madison at Ten Forward Consulting, Inc.
Primarily work with startups, often not a big budget for design
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We’ve got a lot to cover.
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WORDS: make speech visible, No. 1 to 4Breathing room, legible, scannable, simple
IMAGES: use appropriately, No. 5 & 6DESIGN: think logically, No. 7 to 10
Icons sparingly, photos and graphics integrated
Patterns, progressive disclosure, consistency, functionality
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You know more than you think you do.
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Why design matters
Usability
Credibility
Interest
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If usability engineers designed a nightclub, it would be clean, quiet, brightly lit, with lots of places to sit down, plenty of bartenders, menus written in 18-point sans-serif, and easy-to-find bathrooms. But nobody would be there. They would all be down the street at Coyote Ugly pouring beer on each other.”
- Joel Spolsky, founder of Trello
“
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No. 1 to 4
WORDS: make speech visual
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WORDS: make speech visual1.Let your text breathe.
Text-box width: 400 to 800 pixels, or 60 to 100 characters per line
Line-height: At Ten Forward Consulting, our standard is 1.4.
Padding between text-boxes: At least 15px in any direction.
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WORDS: make speech visual1.Let your text breathe.
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WORDS: make speech visual1.Let your text breathe.
WORDS: make speech visual
Contrast: Don’t put yellow text on a white background
Size: Minimum 16px (depending on font)
2. Make your text legible.
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WORDS: make speech visual2. Make your text legible.
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WORDS: make speech visual2. Make your text legible.
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WORDS: make speech visual
Highlight key content
Subheads, with lowercase and uppercase letters
Bulleted lists
3. Make your text scannable.
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WORDS: make speech visual3. Make your text scannable.
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WORDS: make speech visual3. Make your text scannable.
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WORDS: make speech visual
Limit number of typefaces/fonts (2 or 3)
Limit colors (3 to 5, including grays)
Use more complex fonts for headers, more basic sans-serif for text
4. Keep the decoration to a minimum.
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WORDS: make speech visual4. Keep the decoration to a minimum.
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WORDS: make speech visual4. Keep the decoration to a minimum.
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Let’s recap.
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WORDS: make speech visibleBreathing room, legible, scannable, simple
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No. 5 & 6
IMAGES: use appropriately
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IMAGES: use appropriately
99% of the time, should be accompanied by a label
Work best in navigation or menu (like a list of characteristics)
Avoid icons with conflicting meanings
5. Icons
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IMAGES: use appropriately5. Icons
@hilaryskvia https://bold.pixelapse.com/
IMAGES: use appropriately
Banner blindness
Integrate with content
Be informative and/or relevant
6. Photos and graphics
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IMAGES: use appropriately6. Photos and graphics
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IMAGES: use appropriately6. Photos and graphics
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Let’s recap again.
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WORDS: make speech visibleBreathing room, legible, scannable, simple
IMAGES: use appropriatelyIcons sparingly, photos and graphics integrated
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No. 7 to 10
DESIGN: think logically
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DESIGN: think logically
Alternate between small, medium and wide
Quality trumps originality (in most cases)
Find something that works, and use it as a model
7. Use patterns
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DESIGN: think logically7. Use patterns
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DESIGN: think logically7. Use patterns
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DESIGN: think logically
F-shape reading pattern
Top to bottom = important to less important
Above the fold
Avoid putting key content in traditional ad areas
8. Progressive disclosure
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DESIGN: think logically8. Progressive disclosure
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DESIGN: think logically8. Progressive disclosure
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DESIGN: think logically
Links, buttons
Alert messages
Forms
Tables
Header fonts/sizes
9. Be consistent
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DESIGN: think logically9. Be consistent
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DESIGN: think logically
It doesn’t matter if it looks good and is easy to use if it doesn’t work.
Back-end impacts front-end
10. Functionality is part of design
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DESIGN: think logically10. Functionality is part of design
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Design is where science and art break even.”
- Robin Mathew, design entrepreneur“
Final recap.
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WORDS: make speech visibleBreathing room, legible, scannable, simple
IMAGES: use appropriately
DESIGN: think logically
Icons sparingly, photos and graphics integrated
Patterns, progressive disclosure, consistency, functionality
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Resources
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Resources
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GeneralUX Myths
Nielsen Norman Group
AdditionalWhat’s the perfect width for your online content?
How do people evaluate a website’s credibility?
Readability: the Optimal Line Length
Making Your Icons User-Friendly: A Guide to Usability in UI Design
Share: The Icon No One Agrees On
8 Guidelines For Better Readability On The Web
Color Contrast Checker
Thanks!
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