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Web Design and Patterns
CMPT 281
Outline
• Motivation: customer-centred design• Web design introduction• Design patterns
Hall of Shame or Hall of Fame?
• http://www.balthaser.com/
Customer-Centred Design
• NYTimes, Aug 30 1999, on IBM Web site– “Most popular feature was … search … people couldn't figure out how
to navigate the site”– “The second most popular feature was the help button, because the
search technology was so ineffective.”
• After customer-centered redesign– use of the help button decreased 84%– sales increased 400 percent
Good Web Site Design can Lead to Healthy Saleshttp://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/08/cyber/commerce/30commerce.html
Click and Go
Customer-Centred Design:“build the right site & build the site right!”
Web Design Patterns• Design patterns communicate
common design problems and solutions– how to create navigation bars
for finding relevant content…– how to create a shopping cart
that supports check out…– how to make sites where
people return & buy…
NAVIGATION BAR (K2)
• Problem: Customers need a structured, organized way of finding the most important parts of your Web site
NAVIGATION BAR (K2)
• Problem: Customers need a structured, organized way of finding the most important parts of your Web site
NAVIGATION BAR (K2)
• Solution– captures essence on how to solve problem
First-level navigation
Second-level navigation
Link to home
NAVIGATION BAR (K2)
NAVIGATION BAR (K2)
NAVIGATION BAR (K2)
Best Practices for Designing Interfaces
• Iterative design
• Getting it right the first time is hard• Need better support for quick turns around loop
Design
PrototypeEvaluate
Design Patterns
Customer-Centered Design
• Understanding customers, their needs, the tools they use, their social and organizational context
• What if you don’t practice CCD?– might overrun budget & management pulls plug– site may be too hard to learn or use;
visitors may never return
Myths of Customer-Centered Design
• Myth 1: Good Design is Just Common Sense– why are there so many bad sites?
• Myth 2: Only Experts Create Good Designs– experts faster, but anyone can understand & use CCD
• Myth 3: Interfaces can be Redesigned Before Launch– assumes site has right features & being built correctly
• Myth 4: Good Design Takes Too Long/Costs Too Much– CCD can reduce total development time & cost (finds problems early on)
• Myth 5: Good Design Is Just Cool Graphics– only one part of the larger picture of what to communicate & how
• Myth 6: UI Guidelines Guide you to Good Designs– only address how a site is implemented, not features, organization, or flow
• Myth 7: Customers Can Always Rely on Documentation & Help– help is the last resort of a frustrated customer
• Myth 8: Market Research Takes Care of Understanding All Customer Needs– does not help you understand behavior: what people say vs. what they do
• Myth 9: Quality Assurance Groups Make Sure That Web Sites Work Well– QA makes sure product meets spec., not what happens w/ real customers on real problems
Design = Solutions
• Design is about finding solutions– unfortunately, designers often reinvent the wheel
• hard to know how things were done before• why things were done a certain way• how to reuse solutions
Design Patterns
• Design patterns communicate common design problems and solutions– First used in architecture (Christopher Alexander)
Design Patterns
• Not too general & not too specific– use a solution “a million times over, without ever doing it
the same way twice”
• Design patterns are a shared language – a language for “building and planning towns,
neighborhoods, houses, gardens, and rooms.”– E.g. BEER HALL is part of a CENTER FOR PUBLIC LIFE…– E.g. BEER HALL needs spaces for groups to be alone…
A Web of Patterns
Patterns Support Creativity• Patterns come from successful examples
– sites that are so successful that lots of users are familiar with their paradigms (e.g., Yahoo)
– interaction techniques/metaphors that work well across many sites (e.g., shopping carts)
• Not too general (principles) & not too specific (guidelines)– designer will specialize to their needs
• Patterns let designers focus on the hard, unique problems to their design situation– every real design will have many of these
Example
PROCESS FUNNEL (H1)
• Problem: Need a way to help people complete highly specific stepwise tasks– ex. Create a new account– ex. Fill out survey forms – ex. Check out
PROCESS FUNNEL (H1)
• What’s different?– no tab rows– no impulse buys– only navigation on page
takes you to next step
• What’s different?– no tab rows– no impulse buys– only navigation on page
takes you to next step
• What’s the same?– logo, layout, color, fonts
• What’s the same?– logo, layout, color, fonts
PROCESS FUNNEL (H1)
• Problem: What if users need extra help?
Process Tunnel
Floating Windows (H6)
Floating Windows (H6)
PROCESS FUNNEL (H1)Solution Diagram
PROCESS FUNNEL (H1) Related Patterns
(A10) Web Apps
(K5) High-Viz Action Buttons
(A1) E-Commerce (A11) Intranets
(H1) Process Funnel
(K12) Preventing Errors
(H8) Context-Sensitive Help(I2) Above the Fold
(K13) Meaningful Error Messages
(H6) Floating Windows
Patterns Offer the Best of Principles, Guidelines, & Templates
• Patterns help you get the details right, without over-constraining your solution– unlike principles, patterns not too general, so will apply to your
situation– unlike guidelines, patterns discuss tradeoffs, show good examples, &
tie to other patterns– unlike style guides, patterns not too specific, so can still be specialized – unlike templates, patterns illustrate flows among different pages
Format of Web Design Patterns
• Pattern Name & Number• Exemplar• Background• Problem Statement• Forces• Solution Summary• Solution Diagram• Related Patterns
Pattern Name and NumberPattern Name and Number
ExemplarExemplar
BackgroundBackground
Problem Statement
Problem Statement
Forces &
Solution
Forces &
Solution
April 1, 2008 CSE 490 L - Spring 2008
Bus StopsBus StopsSolution
Diagram
Solution
Diagram
Related
Patterns
Related
Patterns
Solution
Summary
Solution
Summary
35
Next…
• Complete online tutorials:– http://www.w3schools.com/html/– http://www.w3schools.com/css/
• Reading:– Part 1– K2 (Navigation Bar) and H6 (Floating Windows)