Web Usability Articles & Videos

  • Needy Design Patterns: Please-Don’t-Go Popups & Get-Back-to-Me Tabs

    These two overly demanding website design patterns aimed at driving engagement are in conflict with how people utilize browser tabs.

  • Website Forms Usability: Top 10 Recommendations

    Follow these well-established — but frequently ignored — UX design guidelines to ensure users can successfully complete your website forms.

  • The Role of Enhancement in Web Design

    An enhancement is a user-interface feature that speeds up or enriches the interaction on some platforms for some users. Enhancements take advantage of special user or device capabilities and need to be backed up by more traditional ways of implementing the same interaction.

  • University Websites: Top 10 Design Guidelines

    An effective university website can increase conversions for prospective students and alumni, strengthen institutional credibility and brand, improve user satisfaction, and save the university time and money.

  • The Anatomy of a List Entry

    To support scanning and product comparison, item descriptions on listing pages should have a visual design and layout that preserve content priorities.

  • Young Adults/Millennials as Web Users (Ages 18–25)

    Members of the often misunderstood Millennial generation exhibit unique behaviors and approaches to digital interfaces. They are confident and error prone, and they have high expectations of websites.

  • The Same Link Twice on the Same Page: Do Duplicates Help or Hurt?

    Eliminate redundancy on webpages whenever possible to reduce cognitive overload. Each extra link makes your site harder to use.

  • Website Logo Placement for Maximum Brand Recall

    Users are 89% more likely to remember logos shown in the traditional top-left position than logos placed on the right.

  • Priming and User Interfaces

    Exposure to a stimulus influences behavior in subsequent, possibly unrelated tasks. This is called priming; priming effects abound in usability and web design.

  • The Illusion of Completeness: What It Is and How to Avoid It

    Users can think they see the entire web page, although additional content exists off-screen. Designers must help users discover all relevant information.

  • Simplicity Wins over Abundance of Choice

    As the number of choices increases, so does the effort required to collect information and make good decisions. Featuritis can be an exhausting disease for users.

  • Page Parking: Multi-Tab Mania

    Browser tabs separate the stages of collection and comparing and serve as memory aids to keep many alternate pages available for consideration as users are shopping or researching. 7 UX guidelines support this user behavior, which is particularly common among younger users.

  • Ensure High Contrast for Text Over Images

    If you place text over a background image, make sure it’s readable by providing adequate contrast. Subtle tweaks can increase the contrast without affecting the overall aesthetic of the site.

  • Flat Design: Its Origins, Its Problems, and Why Flat 2.0 Is Better for Users

    Flat design is a web-design style that became popular around 2012. It is still widely used today, and its overuse can cause serious usability problems.

  • The Characteristics of Minimalism in Web Design

    Our analysis of 112 minimalist websites revealed the defining features of minimalism: flat design, limited color schemes, few UI elements, use of negative space, and dramatic typography.

  • Ad Placement for Mobile

    Extra care is required when designing mobile page layouts that include advertisements, due to the limited screen real estate available. Ads must be displayed where they will not create false floors nor block users from reaching relevant content.

  • The Roots of Minimalism in Web Design

    Many popular web-design trends originate in minimalism, a movement that aims to reduce information overload by presenting content in its simplest form.

  • Help People Create Passwords That They Can Actually Remember

    Human memory studies can inform design so they help people remember passwords. This makes customers happy, saves money and time, and increases security.

  • Low-Contrast Text Is Not the Answer

    Low-contrast text may be trendy, but it is also illegible, undiscoverable, and inaccessible. Instead, consider more usable alternatives.

  • Overuse of Overlays: How to Avoid Misusing Lightboxes

    Poorly implemented overlays and lightboxes are not only frustrating for users, but can also be disastrous for conversion and task completion. Use the five W’s – Who, What, When, Where, and Why – to determine whether an overlay is truly the most appropriate design solution, and how you should implement it.