1. By Beth Spencer Effective Web Design

2. Steve Krug Steve Krug is a website usability and interface design expert. His consulting firm, Advanced Common Sense, has tested a variety of sites including Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Netscape. Reviews for existing sites range from $3,000-8,000 for a conference call consultation. Krug’s usability workshops cost $15,000, not including travel expenses.

4. What are the most important things on this site? We know what the most important stories are, even though the headlines are written in Arabic, thanks to visual hierarchy.

6. Where did they put _____? The word “official” is seems invisible since it is white on a mostly white background.

7. Where do I start? Having two buttons could cause confusion and users may question which button to use. It would be better with only the search button. A simple button like this one works best. Effective web design will clearly convey where to begin to its visitors. The fewer words, the better. Useless words can cause confusion and frustrate users. The words “search” and “go” are the most clear ones to use with search buttons, according to Krug. Most people are fans of the search box, and they start there.

10. Most user-friendly website “ Search capabilities. It kind of explains why Google is all powerful. Ease and time in finding the right information is almost as important as the information itself.”-John Campbell, financial analyst “ I use Google for everything.”-Sarah Gill, PR coordinator “ Normally I just type in stuff in the Google search box if I’m looking for something, and I do that a lot.”-Ali Boone, U of M advertising major

11. Unclear navigation Navigation should be either top horizontal or left vertical. Those are the standard locations, and when we visit sites that do not follow that guideline, it causes confusion. Besides guiding visitors around the site, navigation also reveals the content of the site. Each link should have a short description about where it will take them. This home page is a good example of bad navigation tools. Not only are they in an odd location, visitors have no idea what will happen when their click one of the six choices.

12. Make it obvious what’s clickable. When visitors don’t know what they can or cannot click, it is as if they are driving and all of the road signs are blank, according to Vincent Flanders, web usability guru. If visitors know what they can click, they don’t have to ask as many questions. Similarly, if the road signs have directions on them, drivers know where they are headed .

13. Bad Terrible navigation The navigation tools are splattered across the screen. They should be vertical or horizontal, never this way.

14. Effective navigation Navigation always works best top-horizontal or left-vertical.

15. Tab Navigation Steve Krug is a fan of tab navigation, because it is obvious what they are for. They also help divide the site into sections, while indicating where the visitor is in the site at all times. Yahoo.com uses tabs to separate different kinds of news stories.

16. Tab navigation The Commercial Appeal’s tab navigation shows users other pages within each tab. My Fox Memphis uses this technique as well.

17. Drop-down menus Quite a few news websites use drop-down menus. Users have to seek out drop-down menus, which can limit the site’s usability. The menus can be tricky for users, since they disappear when the mouse moves. Saving space on the website is the only benefit from using drop-down menus. The Washington Post uses drop-down menus. CNN’s color-coded navigation bar is much more simple and user-friendly.

19. Drop-down menus MSNBC’s drop-down menus have too many choices, and they would be difficult to scan.

21. Text color contrast The poor color contrast makes reading the categories difficult.

22. Text color contrast The text color was later changed to grey, which is a tiny improvement.

26. Pop-ups Too many pop-ups can send visitors clicking on the competitors’ sites.

27. Too much focus on aesthetics This magazine website site was designed for visual appeal, and users view each page by clicking the corner, as if they are reading a magazine. It may seem like a good idea in theory, but people do not read web pages that way.

29. “ If it solves the problem or question fully and quick.” USA Today’s site is simple, has a search box and displays visual hierarchy.