If Content is King, The User is God: Redesigning The WDVL
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This article explains why we decided to redesign the 'look and feel' of The WDVL,
what design principles we adhered to,
and how we implemented and tested the new design.
As a case study in web design,
it should be useful not only to those who are upgrading existing sites,
but also those who are building new sites.
The article shows that while our focus was on user accessibility rather than being kewl and glam,
we wanted to produce a visual design that was as attractive as possible.
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Why Redesign?
The primary motivation for a redesign came from the fact that The WDVL
simply looked rather plain,
and some visitors might feel that a site for web developers should have
something to say - by example as well as in the content - about visual design.
For many web designers,
'web design' is about the look of a web site.
We contend that a site's appearance is only a
part of the equation
and that issues such as accessibility, content, navigation,
etc must have higher priority for a content-rich site such as The WDVL.
However, our old design was still rather dull,
and we felt it was time to address that.
Another issue that motivated our efforts was the suspicion that new users,
coming to us from external links that referenced internal pages rather than the home page,
might not realise the richness of our content
(nearly 2,000 pages).
There were only a few links to the rest of the site in the standard
navigation menu - these to the main navigation pages such as the
site map and the
Top 100.
An earlier design of The WDVL had much larger navigation menus,
but I felt at that time that the menu was too distracting.
Now, we decided that this problem could be alleviated with careful design.
Design Philosophy and Principles
There were several principles that guided our efforts:-
- Respect for the User.
Going beyond my ability to express it in words,
this item is more of a philosophy than a procedural rule.
While a commercial site must of necessity make certain impositions on its audience
(e.g. banner ads),
we still insist on treating our users as people rather than machines.
- Near-maximum Accessibility.
Frankly,
'cool design' is bound to impact accessibility - as soon as you start to play with colors,
layout, font sizes, etc,
for visual effect - someone is bound to have a problem with it.
The designer's first task is to decide on an appropriate balance for their
particular site and target audience.
Since The WDVL's focus is more on the MLs
(markup languages such as
HTML,
VRML,
DHTML,
XML)
and programming than on
graphics,
we resist the temptation to be control freaks who insist on pixel-perfect presentation.
- What I See Isn't Necessarily What You Get.
How many times do you hear or see commercials that start with
"If you're like me, ..."?
Well, you are not like me,
and I am not like you - certainly,
as far as our browser versions and preferences, computer platforms,
connect speeds, monitor sizes and resolutions, visual capabilities, aesthetic opinions,
etc go.
The chances are very good that we're very different! So,
we try to avoid the arrogant notion that we always know what's best for our users.
Yes, we have the responsibility to have some educated ideas about it,
but ultimately, we have to be prepared to change our ideas.
- Strive for a clean, appealing look.
In spite of all the above chanting of the accessibility mantra,
nevertheless we wanted to improve the users' aesthetic experience as well.
We could maximise accessibility by adhering to the Mosaic-era style of unadorned text,
no tables or other layout devices
(e.g. style sheet positioning), few if any graphics, etc.
But, looks do matter - most people prefer an attractive design to a plain dull one.
And, as stated before,
web developers want to see and learn about visual design as well as MLs and scripting...
These principles lead to practical consequences,
some of which will be detailed later in the article.
Some of the main ones: Avoid fixed font sizes.
Users with visual difficulties,
or unusual viewing conditions,
might want to be able to change the default font size in their browser.
My 37" monitor, set to 800x600, is part of
a PC/TV system,
at a viewing distance of 10'.
The coffee table stops me from getting any closer :-)
Granted, this is a somewhat unusual configuration now,
but the evolution of PC/TV convergence systems, WebTV,
and at the other end of the spectrum, hand-held devices,
will mean that more and more people will need to be able to adjust font size for readability.
Another principle:
don't put the navigation menu on the left side of the main content.
Users with text-only, or text-to-speech browser,
will be confronted with a mass of links to get through before the content.
Actually, there's
a trick
to get around this, but
other considerations
also support the right hand side for the navigation menu.
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