Navigation in an Internet Age
The world-wide-web has been around for nearly 30 years now, and in that time it has changed drastically in how it has presented itself through its User Interface.
The User Experience (UX) is now seen as the primary driver of what makes a really great website; the overall sum of its parts.
A Website should make a good first impression. Many users decided if they are going to continue using a website in the first ten seconds of seeing it, so if what they experience brings them any amount of annoyance or hindrance, they will likely leave. It is essential that the user can then get to their destination and achieve their goal as quickly and efficiently as possible
A great interface makes everything clear to the user and avoids ambiguity through hierarchy and logic. It is important that the interface does not over-label and throw too many options at a user all at once, as this quickly becomes difficult to navigate and confusing. Instead, the UI should be concise while retaining the maximum amount of clarity in navigation. Familiar designs and hierarchy should be used to allow the user to quickly adapt to the website. Correctly labeling hyperlinks, having elements in familiar places (search bars at the top) go a long way to improving UX. This means that the user will not have to spend their time learning a completely new format to interact with the site. It can be said however, than breaking the bounds of familiarity at times can generate interest and make a site stand out amongst the crowd and be unique. A Website should also try and stay out of the way of the user. They have come to complete a task, and if interrupted in this they will become frustrated. This means no popups, overbearing ads or auto-playing videos, etc. A good website should be responsive, in that it should respond quickly and notably when a user interacts with it. For example, changing the colour or size of an item when a user clicks on it or hovers over a hyperlink. This encourages the user that what they are doing is correct and highlights interactivity. These elements should not be overbearing and too loud however. Aesthetics should not be disregarded in all of this, and I would argue is one of the most important areas of a good User Experience. While an ugly website that works in all other facets will perform well and will not hinder a user, they will likely want to come back to or spend more time with a website if it was aesthetically pleasing. Every step should be taken to ensure that there are as many ‘shortcuts’ for users as possible. This means that they will not become frustrated when trying to complete simple tasks. A ‘take me to the top’ button on a long website, or a ‘swap inputs’ button on a journey planner are really useful shortcuts that vastly improve a UX where there are relevant.
Keeping in mind the Target Audience of the website is essential to a great UX experience. What may be simple to navigate or attractive for one group of people may be impossible for others. A site designed for the tech-savvy-internet-age Generation Z may be completely unusable for a baby boomer due to differing cultural and technological references used throughout.
Credibility is a really important factor for websites giving information or for e-commerce sites. If the user feels that the site has been badly designed, they likely wont be as ready to trust their information, or to purchase anything from them.
I think a great example of a good UX is Bloomberg. Their website is very easy to navigate and provides relevant information to their users. The site is also (I find) very aesthetically pleasing and uses a consistent design and monochrome colour scheme throughout. The monochrome allows them to highlight information using colour which draw a users eye.
Wikipedia is a great example of a site that doesn’t priorities aesthetics, but is excellent at enabling the user to navigate logically and read their information easily.
