The View from 30,000 Feet

by Dan Burbank

Take a flight on a clear day and you can guess where you are based on the visual clues you get from a distance. You might not be able to pick out state lines or name that river, but it is easy to tell what goes on in the area you're above. Farm fields tend to be symmetrical and green, buildings and highways reveal cities, snowy peaks top mountains.

The visual clues are so unmistakable that you can pick them out from miles above. The same can be said for some of the visual clues that surface in web design. Most web design isn't earth shattering. Web sites are largely derivative - the top horizontal navigation bar, the left hand navigation menu, search boxes, forms, shopping carts - all of this stays pretty familiar from site to site.

This familiarity isn't a bad thing. These conventions help visitors navigate and feel comfortable on a site for the first time. Does your site create a familiar feel or does it make your visitor feel like they just set foot in a foreign land without so much as a Fodder's guide.

The View from 30,000 Feet

Try this exercise. Print your homepage out, preferably in full color. Pin it to a wall and walk to the other side of the room. Stare directly at the page and identify the zones, just as if you were staring out an airplane window.

This isn't an eye test; the point is actually to strip away any text that might give you clues. Is it apparent where the primary navigation is? Are search boxes easy to identify? Is there one zone or area that really pops out? If so, what's located there? Are like items clearly grouped together, or does the page seem disorganized?

Where to do What

From your airplane seat you can easily tell where the farm stands, offices and highways are. When visitors arrive at your site, they've got a task in mind. The quicker they're able to identify the zone they need, the better experience they'll have. Give them the clues they need to get their task done by creating unmistakable zones.

Try these tips to create a site with a clear view from above:

* Use colors, images and borders to create areas that are distinct from one another. * Put navigation in an obvious place and give the links unambiguous names. * Use headlines and bulleted lists to deliver information efficiently. * Use white space to create a zone that really stands out.

12.04.2007. 16:03

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