People Read On The Web: Zoltán Gócza / Zoltán Kollin

Zoltán Gócza / Zoltán Kollin
uxmyths.com
UX Myths collects the most And you don't have to take our
frequent user experience word for it, we'll show you a lot of
misconceptions and explains why research findings and articles by
they don't hold true. design and usability gurus.
PEOPLE
READ
ON THE WEB
People only read word-by-word So don’t expect people to read
on the web when they are really content that seems neither easily
interested in the content. scannable nor relevant for them,
They usually skim the pages therefore long text blocks,
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looking for highlighted keywords, unnecessary instructions,
meaningful headings, short promotional writing and “smalltalk”
paragraphs and scannable list. should be avoided on the web.
Since they’re in a hurry to find the
very piece of information they’re
looking for, they’ll skip what’s
irrelevant for them.
creativity by www.alessandrogiammaria.com
uxmyths.com
ALL PAGES
SHOULD BE
ACCESSIBLE
IN 3 CLICKS
Usability tests have long What really counts here is ease of
challenged the so called navigation, the constant scent of
three-click rule. information along the user’s path.
Contrary to popular belief, people If you don’t make the user think
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don’t leave your site if they’re about the clicks, they won’t mind
unable to find the desired having a few extra clicks.
information in 3 clicks. In fact, the
number of necessary clicks affects
neither user satisfaction, nor
success rate.
That’s right; fewer clicks don’t
make users happier and aren’t
necessarily perceived as faster.
uxmyths.com
PEOPLE
DON’T
SCROLL
Although people weren’t used to You don’t have to squeeze
scrolling in the mid-nineties, everything into the top of your
nowadays it’s absolutely natural to homepage or above the fold.
scroll. To make sure that people will
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For a continuous and lengthy scroll, you need to follow certain
content, like an article or a tutorial, design principles and provide
scrolling provides even better content that keeps your visitors
usability than slicing up the text to interested.
several separate screens or Also keep in mind that content
pages. above the fold will still get the
most attention and is also crucial
for users in deciding whether your
page is worth reading at all.
uxmyths.com
DESIGN IS
ABOUT
MAKING
A WEBSITE
LOOK GOOD
Many people regard web design The goal of design is to efficiently
as decoration; the art of making a solve problems.
website look good. Design is based on the
However, design is more about understanding of how users see
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how something works than how it the world, how they think and
looks. Design is about both form behave. And the toolset of the
and function. In contrast with art, designer is broader than just
good design is not only visually colors and font-styles, as it also
and emotionally appealing but is includes user-research,
made for use. prototyping, usability testing, and
more.
uxmyths.com
ACCESSIBILITY
IS EXPENSIVE
AND DIFFICULT
To make your website accessible, Correcting an already inaccessible
you don’t need to add extra site, however, might need extra
functionality or to duplicate any effort but is always beneficial on
content. The key is simply to the long run since accessible sites
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assess the requirements of those are easier and cheaper to
with different skills and limited maintain.
devices when designing the user
interface and your content.
To build from scratch a website
that’s accessible therefore, costs
virtually the same as to develop
one that isn’t.
uxmyths.com
ACCESSIBLE
SITES
ARE UGLY
Accessibility on the web means Since the visual appearance of a
making your content available to site is defined by style sheets,
users with different skills and accessibility in itself should not
devices. A key requirement of have any impact on visual design.
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web accessibility is to separate
content (HTML) from visual
appearance (CSS) in order to
allow those preferring - or
requiring - to use their own
specific style sheet to access the
content.
uxmyths.com
GRAPHICS
WILL MAKE
A PAGE
ELEMENT
MORE VISIBLE
A common pitfall in web design is It doesn’t mean though that you
to emphasize an important piece can’t use any emphasis. Contrast
of content with a graphic-heavy does work well and is essential for
and flashy presentation. This prioritizing content and thus
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approach, however, often makes it creating effective web design.
less visible.
When people look for something
specific on a website, they search
for text and links where they
assume the information would be
found. Very often people mistake
visual, colorful page elements for
ads and avoid them altogether.
uxmyths.com
STOCK
PHOTOS
IMPROVE
THE USERS’
EXPERIENCE
Usability tests and eye-tracking Such images aren’t related to the
studies show that stock photos topic of the website and don’t
and other decorative graphic hold useful information. Users
elements rarely add value to a usually overlook stock images and
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website and more often harm than might even get frustrated by them.
improve the users’ experience.
uxmyths.com
DESIGN
HAS TO BE
ORIGINAL
Many designers would rather As users appreciate usability over
attempt reinventing the wheel novelties, standard patterns will
than to adapt conventional user eventually benefit your audience.
interface design patterns. It should It might occur that a new
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be considered, however, that such approach is needed, but you must
design conventions are be 100% positive that your
well-working because they’ve solution is better than the existing
already been introduced and pattern.
tested for usability. Since the
users know them well, you don’t
need any explanation or
instruction manual.
uxmyths.com
IF YOUR
DESIGN
IS GOOD,
SMALL DETAILS
DON’T MATTER
"The details are not the details. Small details go a long way.
They make the design." said This is what Apple is all about:
Charles Eames. Fine details, such obsessive attention to details
as an informative error message, a down to the smallest bits.
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reassuring piece of microcopy, or
the orders in which products are
shown on a category page,
strongly impact the user
experience and the bottom line.
uxmyths.com
YOU NEED
TO REDESIGN
YOUR WEBSITE
PERIODICALLY
To many, a redesign means what doesn’t work on the current
revamping the look of a website in website, and how user needs
the hope that it will increase have changed since the last
conversions and attract new redesign. In most cases, it is
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customers. In fact, such projects sufficient to make minor changes
are often counterproductive as in the user interface. Google,
user feedbacks on numerous Yahoo, Amazon and a bunch of
redesigns proved that users hate others follow this strategy with
change, even if the new design is great success: you can hardly see
clearly superior to the original. significant changes on their
For a redesign (or realign) to be websites though they’re
effective, it must stem from the perfecting their design constantly.
understanding of what does and
uxmyths.com
MORE CHOICES
AND FEATURES
RESULT IN
HIGHER
SATISFACTION
Having choices is considered a However, the more choices a
good thing. We are used to website or web application offers,
choices and we value dearly if we the harder it is to understand the
can be in control. interface. Studies show that
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having too many options often
leads to decision paralysis and
frustration. As a general rule,
people only value an abundance
of features before they actually
start using the given product. After
they have started using it, the
simpler solution wins with higher
satisfaction.
uxmyths.com
ICONS
ENHANCE
USABILITY
Many researchers have shown In another study, the team of UIE
that icons are hard to memorize observed that people remember a
and are often highly inefficient. button’s position instead of the
The Microsoft Outlook toolbar is a graphic interpretation of the
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good example: the former function.
icon-only toolbar had poor In most projects, icons are very
usability and changing the icons difficult to get right and need a lot
and their positioning didn’t help of testing. For abstract things,
much. What did help was the icons rarely work well.
introduction of text labels next to
the icons. It immediately fixed the
usability issues and people started
to use the toolbar.
uxmyths.com
YOU ARE
LIKE
YOUR USERS
When designing a website, it’s To avoid this bias, you need to
easy to assume that everybody is learn about your users, involve
like you. However, this leads to a them in the design process, and
strong bias and often ends in an interact with them.
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inefficient design.
You evidently know a lot about
your services and your website;
you’re passionate about them.
Your users, on the other hand, are
likely to not care that much. They
have different attitudes and goals,
and just want to get things done
on your website.
uxmyths.com
USERS
MAKE
OPTIMAL
CHOICES
In an ideal world, users would This is due to their experience
scan through your entire page to that guessing wrong and hitting
find the very piece of information the back button is still more
they’re looking for, but research efficient than reading a whole
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shows this is not the case. page to find an exact match.
Usability tests prove that people This behaviour, known as
tend to choose the first somewhat satisficing, is a well-known
reasonable choice that catches decision-making strategy in
their eyes. psychology.
That is, once they come across a
link whose label refers even a little
to what they’ve come for, they’ll
click it.
uxmyths.com
SEARCH
WILL SOLVE
A WEBSITE’S
NAVIGATION
PROBLEMS
On a website, people usually scan People are better at recognizing
for trigger words first and only use things than recalling them from
the search function when they’re memory. It’s much easier and
unable to find a good enough faster to click on a link than to
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navigational link. enter a search term: you don’t
This holds true for most websites, have to spontaneously come up
though people habitually search with the proper search
by default for books, DVDs and expression, or worry about
CDs, computer games; that is, synonyms and spelling.
products whose title or author
they know.
uxmyths.com
THE
HOMEPAGE
IS YOUR MOST
IMPORTANT
PAGE
Usability experts, including Jakob This, in fact, is no longer the case,
Nielsen, have long argued that as users’ browsing and searching
your homepage is the most behavior has significantly changed
valuable real estate of your over time.
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website. Website statistics convincingly
As a result, lots of web designers show that on many websites the
and developers still spend most of homepage gets less and less
their time on the design of the share in pageviews.
home page.
uxmyths.com
FLASH
IS
EVIL
In the earlier years of the internet, has rich accessibility features and
many web designers preferred even supports the use of the
overusing Flash animations, browser’s back button. Most users
ignoring users with slow internet have no problems with Flash itself,
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connections or without Flash suffice to mention the popularity
player. These early of online video sharing sites.
implementations often neglected However, there are still a lot of
basic usability principles, too, poorly designed Flash sites and
therefore the whole technology the technology has several
was criticized for being unusable limitations, so you should always
and inaccessible. consider whether it’s the optimal
Flash technology has improved a choice for your design.
lot since: it is now SEO friendly,
uxmyths.com
YOU DON'T
NEED THE
CONTENT
TO DESIGN A
WEBSITE
Many designers create wireframes The fact is that users come for the
and comps with “lorem ipsum" content, not the design. Content is
filler text. Using dummy text often by far the most important element
results in an aesthetically pleasing in user interface design.
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but unrealistic design. What’s A webpage with a simple structure
worse, it creates the illusion that but quality content performs much
content is secondary. better on usability tests than a
nice layout with subpar text.
uxmyths.com
IF IT WORKS
FOR AMAZON,
IT WILL WORK
FOR YOU
Although Amazon has features Target.com doesn’t receive any
that are both excellent and reviews at all: in the first month
well-proven, they won’t after Harry Potter and the Deathly
necessarily work on any Hallows came out, Amazon got 1
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e-commerce website. Let’s take 805 reviews, whereas Target
their customer reviews for received only 3 (both retailers sold
example. about 2 million copies).
Target.com bought Amazon’s It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t
customer review software. Jared copy the design of others - by all
Spool demonstrates that, despite means do. But make sure you also
using the same exact software understand why it worked for
and interface, them and how it will work for your
company and your users.
uxmyths.com
PEOPLE
CAN TELL
YOU WHAT
THEY WANT
Many organizations still rely on There’s a huge difference
asking people what changes between imagining using
they’d like to see in their website something and actually using it. In
or service, neglecting historical addition, human preferences are
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research failures like the New rather unstable.
Coke or the Aeron chair. That’s not to say you should quit
When asking people, you have to listening to your customers. But
be aware that people make make sure you know what to ask
confident but false predictions and how to interpret the answers.
about their future behavior,
especially when presented with a
new and unfamiliar design.
uxmyths.com
USABILITY
TESTING IS
EXPENSIVE
Many organizations still believe You don’t need a lot of
usability testing is a luxury that participants either, even 5 users
requires an expensively equipped can be enough to test for specific
lab and takes weeks to conduct. tasks, and the recruiting can also
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In fact, usability tests can be both be done guerilla-style.
fast and relatively cheap. You For many projects, you can even
don’t need expensive prototypes; use remote and unmoderated
low-tech paper prototype tests tests.
can also bring valuable results.
uxmyths.com
CHOICES
SHOULD
ALWAYS BE
LIMITED
TO 7+/-2
Limiting the number of menu tabs For example, research shows that
or the number of items in a broad and shallow menu
dropdown list to the George structures may even work better
Miller’s magic number 7 is a false than deeper menus. Also, link-rich
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constraint. Miller’s original theory e-commerce homepages, like that
argues that people can keep no of Amazon with 90+ product
more than 7 (plus or minus 2) category links, are found to be
items in their short-term memory. more usable than homepages
On a webpage, however, the with only a few links.
information is visually present,
people don’t have to memorize
anything and therefore can easily
manage broader choices.
uxmyths.com
PEOPLE ALWAYS
USE YOUR
PRODUCT THE
WAY YOU
IMAGINED
THEY WOULD
Even if a product was designed to You should, therefore, never take
fulfill specific and known user your design for granted and
needs, customers don’t always always collect feedback on how
use it the way and for the purpose your product is actually used to
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the product was originally reveal the real user needs and to
intended. In many cases, users get ideas of innovation.
don’t care or don’t understand
how a product works, and once
they find a way to use it, they’ll
stick to it. Many people, for
example, type URLs into the
Google search bar instead of the
browser’s address bar.
uxmyths.com
AESTHETICS
ARE NOT
IMPORTANT
IF YOU HAVE
GOOD USABILITY
There are usability practitioners If a website has a pleasant visual
who completely dismiss the design, users are more relaxed,
importance of aesthetics, often tend to find the website more
citing unattractive but popular credible and easier to use.
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websites such as Craigslist. A positive first impression - usually
However, aesthetics do have a based on looks rather than
function. interaction - determines the value
Attractive things work better. of the website on the user’s
Studies show that emotions play behalf.
an important role in the users’ Aesthetics also tell a good many
experience. about your brand, product or
service. They show that you care.
uxmyths.com
USABILITY
TESTING
=
FOCUS
GROUPS
When it comes to collecting Usability testing, on the other
feedback from users, usability hand, is about observing how
tests and focus groups are often people actually use a product, by
confused although their goals are assigning key tasks to users and
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completely different. analyzing their performance and
Focus groups assess what users experience.
say: a number of people gather in
order to discuss their feelings,
attitudes and thoughts on a given
topic to reveal their motivations
and preferences.
uxmyths.com
UX DESIGN
IS ABOUT
USABILITY
Designing for the user experience A good design is pleasurable,
has a lot more to it than making a thoughtfully crafted, makes you
product usable. Usability allows happy, and gets you immersed.
people to easily accomplish their Think of games, they usually have
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goals. these characteristics.
UX design covers more than that, Or think of the iPhone that makes
it’s about giving people a even failures “more enjoyable
delightful and meaningful than succeeding on a Blackberry”.
experience.
uxmyths.com
WHITE
SPACE IS
WASTED
SPACE
White space or “negative space”, Not only is white space
referring to the empty space responsible for readability and
between and around elements of content prioritization, it also plays
a design or page layout, is often an important role in the visual
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overlooked and neglected. layout and brand positioning
Although many may consider it a
waste of valuable screen estate,
white space is an essential
element in web design and “is to
be regarded as an active element,
not a passive background,” Jan
Tschichold wrote in 1930.
uxmyths.com
PEOPLE
ARE
RATIONAL
People don’t make purely rational However, our irrationality is
decisions based on careful predictable.
analysis of cost and expected Good designers, therefore, can
utility, despite what classical learn about human decision
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economics taught us. making and go beyond usability to
Research findings confirm that our create products that effectively
decisions are driven more by our influence our behavior.
emotions than logical and
conscious thinking.
uxmyths.com
IF YOU ARE AN
EXPERT, YOU
DON’T NEED
TO TEST
YOUR DESIGN
When it comes to evaluating the Usability testing and expert
usability of an interface, user reviews are both useful and tend
testing is often considered to have different findings,
unnecessary if an expert has therefore it’s usually
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already reviewed it. recommended to combine the
Since people rarely behave the two in order to get the most
way you expect, an expert can comprehensive analysis of the
find major usability problems, but interface.
usability tests always reveal
surprising issues.
uxmyths.com
UX DESIGN
IS A STEP
IN A PROJECT
Many think that user experience Thus UX design has a crucial part
design is confined to sketching in defining the business strategy,
the interfaces. However, UX providing baselines for business
design is a much broader process decisions with such design
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that - ideally - starts at the strategy deliverables as personas or user
level and affects the whole stories.
lifecycle of a project or a business. A UX-driven process doesn’t end
UX design begins by learning with the UIs either, it’s also about
about the business model, doing testing with people, supporting
user research and understanding development, making ongoing
how a service can fit into the adjustments even after the launch.
users’ lives in a meaningful way.
uxmyths.com
SUCCESS
HAPPENS
OVERNIGHT
The Apple iPod instantly turned The fact is that it takes many years
the MP3 player market upside to be an overnight success even
down, right? Amazon changed the for internet entrepreneurs. Years
book selling business like a shot, of hard work, endurance, learning,
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didn’t it? Well, in fact they didn’t. experimenting, and many failures
No matter how it may seem from along the way.
the outside. And sometimes pursuing a project
almost everybody dislikes, like
developing Gmail with its “crazy
Javascript stuff”.
uxmyths.com
MOBILE
USERS ARE
DISTRACTED
When thinking of mobile users, But are mobile users distracted?
many have a stereotypical image Of course they are. But we are just
of people on the go, people with as much distracted when sitting in
the attention span of a goat and front of our computers, watching
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suffering from Mobile User TV or driving a car. Distractions
Attention Deficit Disorder. are everywhere, it’s not a
mobile-only phenomenon.
uxmyths.com
SIMPLE
=
MINIMAL
Simplicity is key to great and Icons without text labels are
innovative product design. But difficult to understand,
simplicity is way often confused non-standard gestures provide no
with minimalist style. In fact, simple obvious affordance, the minimalist
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looking, minimal product UIs often hamburger menu was proven
carry hidden complexity. many times to perform poorly.
Design decisions aiming for We should all strive for simplicity,
reduction can easily introduce but we must make sure not to
more friction and cognitive load, oversimplify for the sake of
leading to a more complex user minimalism. As Albert Einstein put
experience. it, “Everything should be made as
simple as possible, but not
simpler.”

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