Web Design Practices

This week , I have read on a web site at

http://www.webdesignpractices.com/

This website have given the statistic and analysis the current trends of the information positioning. Also the presentation type , label format that make a less experience web designer to know the current trend of web design .Which is made the user feel the web easy to use and feel constancy that compare with another website.

H ere is some case of study from the website.
Search function

The Search function allows users to enter keywords and operators (and, or, not) into a text field and find information that matches the search criteria entered. Data below is from 75 leading e-commerce sites, collected in May, 2002. [sites examined]

Frequency of Search 93% of sites in the sample provided a global Search function.

Option to Search an Particular Area of a Site

27% of sites providing Search provided the option to narrow the search to a subsection of the site. This was most commonly provided by having a drop-down menu adjacent to the search field, which was variously positioned left, right, below, or above the text field:

37%	Drop-down left
26%	Drop-down right
11%	Drop-down below
11%	Drop-down above
11%	List of subsearch options each with a separate “Go” button
5%	Radio buttons below
	[view subsearch examples]

This is a very useful tools that given a view statistic for new web designer.

Optimal web design

This week , I have read an article about the “Optimal web design” on

http://psychology.wichita.edu/optimalweb/ .

The article is talking more or less on different key points in optimal web design , which is

1. How should information be positioned in a typical website
2. What is the best way to arrange menus.
3. How should text be presented within a website
4. How can I reduce the major user annoyances on my site

and More…

This useful article give me a guideline for how to positioning the menu , content .Which give user have best absorb the content of the website. And enhance the rate of the return visitors.

and some bad usage of the web design such as frame.

Design Patterns

This week , I have found an interesting album , which display the unique and interesting interface and design flows from across the web

http://www.flickr.com/photos/factoryjoe/collections/72157600001823120/

http://randaclay.com/how-to/how-to-dress-up-your-404-page/ 

It might a very upset moment when the web visitors browse a broken links with the “404” text To design a “404” web page. Some users will close the browser .

“u have about half a second to engage the visitor who has ended up at your 404 page.”

For create a 404 page , it should

“pulls the words in the URL that was entered in error, and brings back related entries on your site that might be of interest”

It is useful to create this page and enhance the web usability .

And beautiful 404 page will give a good impaction for the visitors.