It has been a crazy few weeks for us. Good crazy though.
We won two major (and fascinating) contracts at the end of August and we are off to London later this week for a kick-off meeting for another big win for a brand new client.
I can’t talk too much about it just yet, but it’s one of those career defining projects that our team will talk about for years to come.
We are incredibly pleased and proud to have won it and look forward to showing you later this year 
Nice to be having some decent weather at last too.
When writing online we always recommend ‘the active voice’ – it is more direct, less wordy, easier to understand. Active voice helps people to grab information quickly and naturally leads to a more conversational tone of voice.
What is the difference between active and passive voice?
This is the way I’ve always explained it:
Active voice is when the subject is doing something or causing the action
“John kicked the ball” – the sentence describes who does what to whom, John is kicking the ball..
The passive voice is the other way around – something is being done to the subject, the subject is the recipient of the action
“The ball was kicked by John” – the subject (the ball) is being kicked by John
More examples of the active voice:
Active: Craig slammed down his iPhone
Passive: The iPhone was slammed down by Craig
Active voice minutes: “We discussed user journeys. Jane presented the analytics report, further user testing will be undertaken next quarter
Passive voice minutes: “User journeys were discussed by those in attendance. The analytics report was presented by Jane, it was agreed that further user testing is to be undertaken next quarter“
Writing in the active voice uses less word, makes copy more concise which ticks another online writing basic – remove excess words and use smaller everyday words where possible.
Here’s a nice little article on the Wireframes site about using mind maps to think about functional requirements of the web site and user goals / tasks before diving into the detail and sketching wire frames.
By using functional mind maps first (whether they are sketched or done using tools such as Mindmeister) it allows us to explore ideas and start mapping associated activities of the users.
Source: http://wireframes.linowski.ca/
The other day in a IA work shop session one of our clients asked a really valid question:
“…do too many links in a page to the same destination page make the page harder to use because visitors have to look through more content to find what they’re looking for? For example on the home page we have links to the same destination page in the navigation bar, the content area and the promotional area.”
Some argue that more than one link to the same destination page is just too many, and I agree that if there is more than one link to the same destination page then there needs to be a good, and well considered, reason for this.
However as with many usability and IA questions there is no definitive rule, and the answer depends on many variables…
More than one link is OK but don’t just duplicate your navigation bar
For real priority content and key user tasks we will often make sure that there is more than one link. So say a key business objective is ‘to get more users to sign up’ we may have a link in the navigation bar and a link or a big button in the content area to the sign up form.
The reason we take this approach, having more than one link to core content and key tasks, is that we’ve observed users in the same testing sessions navigate only using the navigation bar and others navigate only by scanning the content area for links and buttons (seeming almost blind to the navigation bars). Therefore the argument is very strong to add more than one link to key tasks on a page.
What we really don’t like to see is a web site where the whole of the navigation bar is repeated in the content area, and worse still some sites where key user goals and call to actions are in the navigation bar, cross promotional navigation area and content area!
That’s why user journeys and listing core tasks / goals is so important, with this understanding we can make sure that on relevant pages we have 2 or potentially 3 ways into that primary business function, on other pages where that specific task is not as important we will have fewer links.
Big buttons help prioritise key tasks and speed up user journeys
The other ‘trick’ we use is pushing key journeys with big buttons, we know big buttons are clicked more often and more quickly, so by making a link really big gives the user a very clear entry point to a key task. It screams to the user ‘this is really important’ and will often out perform a number of smaller links. Of course you can’t super size all your links – just your really core user task(s) on that page.
So on a page non core business functions / ‘non key tasks’ should not be duplicated – instead rely on good Information Architecture.
We find that using trigger words works really well on navigation pages, helping to ensure that the different audience groups understand the IA of the site, grouping and labelling of content.
Thinking of making tweaks and changes?
Before we make fundamental changes we typically we like to get a detailed understanding so we’ll often use a mix of these to help build our knowledge:
- Know where you want your users to go – review your audiences and their key user journeys, look at specific tasks and the IA
- Check analytics to see which links are being clicked on
- Split test if possible (A, B test – try removing duplicate links for a period of time and see what the impact is)
- Do some quick and dirty user testing
- Keep reviewing the site’s aims and business objectives
As you can see this was a really great question and deserved more than a one line answer!
In this post I wanted to talk about the user’s needs and general rules of thumb for navigation or pathway pages…
So what’s navigation page?
Navigation pages are the pages between the home page and the information pages. The aim of navigation pages is to get the user quickly to the information they are looking for.
Most site visitors are on a hunt – they have a goal or task and the navigation page is THE way to get them there quickly (by increasing the scent of information and giving clear links as next steps).
Above: Navigation pages – where they sit in the site hierarchy
From our observations, and other research, people don’t want to read a lot when they are ‘hunting / foraging’ for information. Only when the user has reached the page which screams ‘here’s the information you are looking for’ does the user suddenly turn from information hunting to gathering, they are now ready to feast, read – and devour information!
Some rules of thumb for navigation pages:
- Navigation pages are really table of contents – they give a quick overview of what’s offered and show the user where to go next
- Cut the text – most users won’t read even a paragraph of text on a navigation page, the page needs to tell them what to click on / do without reading
- Links with a short one line of text which includes trigger words / keywords helps
- Images can help too – make sure they add to the users understanding of what is behind the link and are not just ‘eye candy’
- Bullet points work really well
- Marketing messages and copy will be ignored – on navigation pages just make sure user can find the information they are hunting for quickly
- Don’t panic about the “3 click rule” (or rather “3 click myth”), observing users has taught us they are happy to go beyond 3 clicks if these are quick clicks and the information scent is getting stronger
- Don’t make people think on navigation pages – use simple language, bullet points, big obvious links to all speed up navigation
An example of a navigation page we designed for visitwales.co.uk – the aim for users to be able to move to the information they need VERY quickly
Directgov (www.direct.gov.uk) has lots of really good navigation pages, here’s one for Motoring:
Lots of quick links and bullet points making a highly scannable and therefore quick navigation page.
Of course on many bigger sites we have a couple of layers of navigation page, as long as the information scent gets stronger as the user clicks through these they are fast links and get the user to their destination really quickly.
From the motoring page on DirectGov site clicking on “registering a vehicle” takes the user to another navigation page which then goes to the full information page
What about users landing inside the site?
Many users will land directly in your site, maybe on a navigation page so that’s why its important that navigation pages include:
- Site logo, name
- Strapline (make the logo a link to the home page)
- Global navigation device
- Home link
- Site search box if there is one on the site
- Footer and utility navigation devices
Finally users aren’t perfect!
On navigation pages we see uses clicking / choosing the first option that looks like it fits the bill. Therefore when organising the navigation page make sure:
- the ordering of lists and priorities on the page are carefully considered
- the most important information and links are high up the page
- if you want to persuade users to click one link over another put the priority link above the other one
Once you’ve built the navigation pages test them with users against tasks and goals.
For more information on writing for the web this book is great: ‘Letting go of the words – writing for the web’ by Janice (Ginny) Redish
Here’s a neat article from Smashing magazine summarising whether to open a new browser window or not:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/07/01/should-links-open-in-new-windows/
A quick summary / rule of thumb is open links in a new window only if:
- The link is to a non HTML document e.g. a PDF, XLS, MP3 etc, in this case use a popup window without browser control toolbar
- The link provides help / assistance (so the user doesn’t have to navigate away fro the page they are currently on)
- The link interrupts an ongoing process (e.g. filling in a form, checkout forms) so a user doesn’t lose information that they have already typed in
- The link is to a large image which takes time to load (opening the image in a new window allows the user to read the content while the big image is loading)
Everything else should open in the same page unless explicitly stated that links are opened in a new window – and don’t open a new window unless there’s a really good reason.
Sometimes you see a link and you are dead sure you know what information you’ll see when you click on it – other links you just haven’t got a clue. When you are searching for information and have a specific goal the extent to which you can predict what you will find if you follow a certain path and links through a site is called the ‘Information Scent’.
‘Information scent’ is part of the information foraging theory which uses the analogy of animals hunting for food to ex plain how users interact with a web site.
In the same way that a hunting animal is sure that that following a stronger and stronger scent will mean that they find their prey at the end. Your visitor clicking through your site searching for specific information or with a specific goal will continue to do so if the information scent is getting stronger and they keep on finding links which take them closer to their goal.
This is why it’s important that the navigation is clearly defined, labels state what they will find, that the language is plain and easy to understand, and why its great to add trigger words as cues within your links – all to make that information scent particularly smelly!
