To kick off the new year in Web Design, I thought it would be best to go through a couple of my tell-tale signs that can help you gauge if and when your website’s design sucks. Obviously, “Website design” in this concept does not only include the graphical elements of the page, but of course the Information architecture, usability, accessibility, etc. So without further ado– Let’s get going with round one of “Your website design sucks because…” with Your website design sucks because users can’t find crap!

1. What the heck are you thinking?!

Whether or not you are running a corporate information site or a 15,000 page e-Commerce store- your content should be easy to find! The biggest problem is people think that you ALWAYS need a search box. Search on a website comes in many flavours, and sure; a search box would be awesome- as long as the results are easy to understand and filter to the right place. Having said that, not all great websites have search boxes or website search for that matter – but most if not all of them [great websites, that is] make the user experience worthwhile by making their content easy to find. Here are a few tips:

• If you are running a blog, make sure there is at least a way for the user to find an archive of all your content. After all, one of the main calling-cards, if you like – of a blog, is the fact that it is a chronological listing of posts or entries. Other important elements that help users searching for content is Tags and Categories. Try to make sure your posts only belong to one parent category. I.e. Not “Sydney Web Design” AND “Web Design” — after all, 99% of the time, one of the two (or more) categories makes the most sense. Tags help users by allowing to search for other posts which they might find interesting based on a common interest; i.e. Usability.
• If you are running a website; other than a web log , make sure that there is a common, geographical structure to your pages. I.e. there should always be the same header and footer on all pages – including any side-navigation or side elements. Doing this makes sure that users learn where things are and helps elevate any problems in looking for things all over your website.

2. Some conventional wisdom

Most webmasters and/or designers usually get search from a UI point of view under control. I mean come on! It’s basically three elements– A label “search for:”, a text box, usually pre-filled with “type query here” or something of the sort, and finally a “go/search/find” submit button… Easy, right? Wrong! Whilst the front-end features of site search are seen as simple, most websites/intranets (even the big players) crash and burn on the search results page.

3. A case study in Search Usability: Australia Post

Ahh, good old Australia Post! I love the fact that they deliver to anywhere in the world and the prices are not too bad — and I haven’t had anything major get lost whilst sending out *so far*. However, one thing that drives me insane about Australia Post is their website; http://www.austpost.com.au — not only is this website in need of a “major” overhaul. Let’s start with the essentials of this particular topic; Search.

The search on AustPost is located at: http://search.auspost.com.au. Nothing wrong with that so far- In fact, it’s smart to have search on either a sub-domain or a sub-folder at search.domain.com or domain.com/search. Moving right along. Oh wait! That domain does not work (Under Construction!!) unless you append the following to it: “/cse/auspost/” making the FULL-URI http://search.auspost.com.au/cse/auspost/ – Tsk, tsk AP!

If you type “test” in the search box and click the search button of the main page you get diverted to a search results page; which is okay so far– However, the diverted results page is a TOTALLY DIFFERENT website (in terms of overall look and feel). Check it out for yourself.

Australia Post Search Box - Main Page

All good so far… Let’s see what happens when we get diverted to the ‘actual’ search page.

Australia Post Search Results Page - Search.austpost.com.au

Oops! Something went completely wrong. Did I, as the user kill the site? Or is it meant to be a completely different site followed by a completely different user experience? [Both valid questions you don't need a visitor to your website, especially your search page asking!].

As Homer Simpson would say in a time of crisis; Doh! Different Logo, Different colour scheme, Different tab system, Different IA… Well, at least the logo is generally in the same place as before. Granted, I don’t know the reasoning behind this– Maybe they are in the process of moving sites across to a newer(?) design – but nonetheless, I think being a government corporation, this is pretty bad usability!
Anyway, let’s move right along… As if that first problem wasn’t bad enough, let’s see the search results form. Below is a screenshot of the “general” search form. By general search form I’m referring to the non-advanced variety!

Search Results Box

Wow, okay — where to start, where to start. Let’s rattle off some of the issues with this search box/form.

1. Why have a “Show search options >>” as well as “‘Advanced Search”. That is not only confusing, but a waste of visual space/real estate. Why not make general search easy to use with no extra-ordinary features, and leave advanced search for those people that need to dig deeper into the data mine. Ahhh, I slowly started to realise why, and you will see why soon!
2. See the “Select All” and “Clear All” check boxes? They only select/deselect one option — and that is the “Australia Post Website” check box. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING AUSTPOST DESIGNERS/DEVELOPERS!!! Give me three good reasons why this is necessary on this page (in its current format) and I will stop using Facebook for a month… Okay, a week! Not only is this stupid from a usability/IA point of view, but it’s NOT needed here. Why?, you ask?
   1. When you actually decide to click on “Search” you really DON’T end up having a choice in the matter, because the “Australia Post Website” check box is auto-ticked when the page has reloaded with the search results! Oh Oh!
   2. It’s a waste of a control to begin with! The same thing could be easily achieved with one button which toggles through the selections. I.e. starts off as “Select all options” then changes to “De-select all options” upon click… However…
   3. There is NO need for the control at all since there is NO other option/area to search from. I.e. If there was “Australia Post Website” and “Australia Post PO Box Search”, etc., then it would make sense — however, there is no other option!
3. The “Exact Phrase” check box control is USELESS in all formats of the word! In theory, the “Exact phrase” should let you search for the term “test” instead of the term test. What this ultimately means is that in reality, “Exact Phrase” should only find the search query if it exists EXACTLY in that format, and not part of other words, or as part of a phrase, etc. The only problem with this is that selecting “Exact Phrase” does NOT change the result set; in essence, returning the SAME number of results as well as in the same order! Yay for happy searching — Not!
4. Clicking “Show search options >>” reveals two fields/controls which are apparently meant to help the user whilst searching but not be enough to warrant the name “Advanced Search”. When you click this link, two new fields pop down; a) Format, and b) Modified. Fair enough, you say. They are letting the user choose what type of file format to search; i.e. PDF, Word, etc. as well as the ‘age’ of the document(s) in question or when they were last updated. So what’s the problem here? Let’s take a peek!
   

   Search Results - Modified drop-down

   Wow! That’s probably the best word to describe this drop-down. Sure, Australia Post must feel great giving thier users so many options to choose from, but on what planet would you be from if you need THAT many options in sorting last modified periods? Surely, a) “Anytime”, b) Past 24 hours, c) Past week, d) Past month, and e) Past year – would suffice? No? Granularity of options is something worth your time as an Information architect or Website designer/developer investing in! The more options you give the user that they don’t necessarily need or will never use, the more they have to think. The experience should not make them think! Just give them results, and quick!

5. Don’t even get me started on the “Advanced Search” link! Let’s just say that it’s a little more advanced than what an “advanced search” needs to be. So much so that a PhD in Comp. Science would definitely help! I mean for Pete’s sake, there is a field called “Custom query” which lets you, quote “Create a query using search operators (and, or, not, near, quotes and parenthesis) and system fields.” unquote! WHAT THA?!?! Sure, I may get it, hell you might even get it as a developer or designer, but your average Joe who might need just that little bit more input into his or her search would most likely freak out! Take it off PLEASE! I’m not searching the CIA Central Repository here, people!

3. In conclusion…

Okay, so I must admit at this point in time that I’m getting a little bit more critical and more importantly a touch “harsher” in my blogging and reviews — but I think it’s important to look at problems like these that normal web browsers would AND DO encounter on a day-to-day basis surfing the Interweb! So hopefully you have picked up a few pointers from this blog post that will help you with your upcoming search page design/re-design. Remember, these are above all just some ideas of what not to do, but the field is huge! Make sure you get people with limited Internet experience to trial all software you create (if possible!) but more importantly, keep in mind some of these ideas for next time and I’m sure your users will thank you!

Thanks for comin’ back guys. Please leave your comments or critisisms below – and be sure to Subscribe to the RSS feed so you can keep up-to-date on all the latest goss and posts from C2.0 Web Design Blog. Till next time, Cheb.

As most of you would probably remember, around mid-May of this year, Cheb 2.0 blogged about the upcoming design and functional changes to Facebook! – Well, I am pleased to report that we are getting very close! With just over a few days to go, and Facebook slowly begining to phase in the new changes, we now have a clearer picture of excactly what we are in for.

Let’s get cracking and check out the upcoming changes to the ‘book.

New Facebook Profile Page

The new Facebook Profile page is pretty wicked, if I do say so myself! Not only is the design still minimal, yet intriguing – but it is very functional and still has that touch of Facebook-y goodness to it which have kept Facebook in the same group as Apple and other leading sites which take a heavy focus on web design!

Check out our screenshot of the new profile page.

Facebook Profile Page

As you can see if you click on the screenshot to the left, there are quit a bit of functional differences between the current, or old(er) style profile page and the updated, shinier profile page.

Some of the most prominent changes include:

1. Complete re-design of web page as well as header and footer.

2. Tab-based system to access profile content such as Wall, Info, Photos and Boxes (which essentially are all the applications that are not displayed on the front page), and a “+” button so you can add a new tab from your applications (shown below).

Facebook info tab showing 'Add a new tab'

3. A bunch more interactivity with Facebook now allowing you to make a lot more changes ‘off’ your current page as opposed to going into your profile’s ‘Edit’ screen to do so. This includes such things as allowing you to edit ‘About me’ information, as well as ‘Networks’ off the profile page.

4. Status messages have now been given the space they deserved from the start, as well as the ability to ‘Add Photos’, ‘Add Video’, ‘Share Link’, ‘Write’ and more (again, based on applications installed) – See below for an animated GIF.

Facebook header preview (animated)

Facebook’s new friends page

The Friends page has been redesigned and re-formatted as well. The coolest gadget to be found on this page is the new ‘Friend Lists’ feature. Facebook says that you can now “easily organize your friends into convenient lists for messaging, invites, and more. You can create whatever kinds of lists you want; all lists are private”. It’s a pretty neat little feature that will make it a lot easier for you to manage a ‘distribution list’ of some sorts which will make your life easier on the long run if you message lots of your friends, for example. I can see this developing into a ‘Friends’, ‘Work Mates’, and ‘Annoying People’ type list! Here’s one I just created called “Test”.

Facebook's new friends list

Facebook’s new homepage

Facebook‘s new homepage (when a member logs in) is very much similar to the original, current design – however it is a lot more cleaner and functional in terms of physical separation of related content and sections. There is now a main right-side navigation which contains all the usual stuff like ‘Who poked you’, or ‘Upcoming Birthdays’, as well as any requests or user updates as well as status updates in general that flow through.

The main content area is simply a listing page showcasing in a Facebook v1.0 style gallery of upcoming uploaded photos and videos, as well as the usual array of friendly updates.

Overall, there are quite a few more cool additions such as Facebook now allowing you to decide how ‘The Wall’ is organised. In essence, you can decide if each new update/addition, such as you uploading four photos, are shown on one line, short, or full views classed as “Story Options”.

Click on the screenshot below for a bigger view.

Facebook's new homepage

So there you have it guys – in again with another exclusive review of the new changes to the new Facebook redesign. Hope you’ve enjoyed this post. I’m sure you’re going to love the changes that are in store for you as soon as the new profiles begin to roll-out sometime this week or next.

Till next time, subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on new posts. For an up close look yourself, login to the preview page here.

Edit: This article is linked to an article which has recently been posted. Read more about “Facebook redesign: The countdown begins“.

From somewhat of a smallish leak to a full-on development cycle to get it going; Facebook is currently in the process of redesigning the Facebook social network. Whilst it isn’t a full-on re-brand, per say – there will be elements such as the start page, the profile page and feed pages which will change!

Why is Facebook redesigning the site?

Whilst they aren’t necessarily redesigning the entire site; Facebook is changing important sections such as the ‘Profile’ in an attempt to clean up the clutter which is being produced by over 25,000 applications ranging from ‘blood sucking vampires’ to ‘am I hot or not’. We all know how annoying some applications can sometimes be, and in particularly how cluttered up they make our profile look.

Since its creation, Facebook has been a shining ‘beacon’ of “What to do” on a major portal/social network. They got the usability right, the site was easy to use and it even looked simple and clean – the direct opposite of Facebook’s biggest competitor; MySpace. So what happens when developers are allowed to build applications which get in the way of such as mantra of excellent web design? You re-design, of course!

Let’s take a look at some of the proposed changes and what you could stand to lose/gain from them. As always, you can click on the images for a larger-sized view.

The Feed and Wall Tabs

To start off with, as you can see, the proposed change to the main profile page (i.e. when you click on ‘Profile’) is to clear up all that clutter left by all your applications flowing down the left-side gutter of the page as well as in the content area as well.

If Facebook has their way, you will expect to see that sort of change on this page.

The changes to this page include:

1. The status message, e.g. “Cheb is now partying”, or in this case “Holly is at school” is shown directly under the profile photo and not directly under the name, as currently is.
2. There is now somewhat of a secondary menu/navigation which is tab-structured allowing you to jump to different ‘views’ of your/or someone else’s profile.
3. The new view allows you to directly post information such as a link or photo off the sub-section in the secondary nav.
4. The ‘Feed’ view, i.e. the current page – above, will combine both the current feed page as well as the wall. What that means is there is no current way to filter either or – and it also means that the normal view, or the ‘Feed’ view will show both; other people leaving wall posts for you and your updates at the same time.

Secondly, the view to the left shows what would happen when someone clicks on the ‘Wall’ tab.

As you can see, no major changes there except that you will be able to remove the ‘Wall’ tab at anytime but the ‘Feed’ tab has to stay put! This makes sense, considering the Feed tab will show both types of inputs – whilst, for good usability, having another tab for just that type of content, i.e. ‘Wall’ is a great idea and kudos to Facebook for setting it up that way.

The new publishing system

The publishing system will be the centralized spot to add a wall post, post a video or photo, as well as post a link to your feed/profile.

I believe that as a user adds new applications which present more ways to post content, such as ‘send a gift’ or anything of the sort, they should be added to the tabs which currently stand at ‘Wall Post’, ‘Video’ and ‘Post a Link’.

Overall, I think this is a great way to combine content into categorically-linked sections. I am not a huge fan of combining the wall posts with the feed, but the structure and navigation for getting to places as well as ‘publishing’ content is possibly second to none! Let’s just say that we can’t even begin to compare it to MySpace!

The applications view

Ahh, where would we be without our much-loved applications? Well, with a wall and notes, I guess! Anyway, the cool news is that there is no way applications are being eradicated or anything – quite the contrary! They will be given their own tab, or view if Facebook has any say in it! Let’s check out the proposed changes:

Hrrmmm! There’s quite a bit to contemplate on this view. Whilst being a working title, I don’t know what Facebook is thinking calling this page ‘Boxes’! I think it was some insider joke or something of the sort, because the first application in the main content area is ‘Family Tree’ with quite a bit of boxes! [Or was it a publicity stunt?!?] *conspiracy conspiracy*

I quite like the idea of zoning out the applications into their own section – after all, it really is those applications that started to clutter things everywhere on Facebook.

The name ‘Boxes’ has to go! No two buts about it. However, what would be cool is if Facebook allowed users to call this what they liked; for example, ‘My Appz’ or ‘My Stuff’ – however, you could see why this would be a problem when people start calling it ‘Fo Shizzle’ or ‘Crack Pipe’ – which absolutely make no sense whatsoever! [Yes, I can be weird at times!]

I think Facebook will eventually just call this ‘Applications’ or ‘My Applications’ – leaning towards the former.

Conclusion

So there you go guys – another design review/did you know style of post! Hope you liked the review and more importantly enjoyed seeing the changes that Facebook should be implementing very soon.

To have your say on the matter, feel free to send an email to profilespreview@facebook.com with the subject heading: ‘Feedback on the new Profile’ or join the group.

Drop us a comment and let the community know what you think; share this post with a friend and make sure to subscribe to the RSS feed if you haven’t yet for further updates.

In what seems to be another way for Social networking giant Facebook to keep ahead of the trends, Facebook has rolled out the brand spanking new chat toolbar.

Everyone knows that ‘The Wall’ and ‘Inbox’ have been the primary ways to communicate – but what happens when you’re making plans for lunch for example, or you need the answer to question 2(a) on that Physics exam that you just happen to be taking online! Facebook Chat of course.

So how does Facebook chat work?

The premise is simple, when you log in next to your Facebook account, you should notice the new Chat bar at the bottom of your browser – ‘no installation or assembly required’. It is from this very slick, a-la-Facebook style bar that you can view your list of online friends and open conversations with them.

Unlike the Wall or Inbox, the messages are delivered and displayed to your friend as soon as they’re sent – meaning a real-time chat experience.

The cool thing about Facebook Chat is basically what has gotten Facebook as an online giant to where it is today – usability. It acts like a real chat application should! You can close chat windows, hide chat windows, go offline so your boss doesn’t see you and change application settings.

The screen shot below shows that I’m online (green circle on the far right next to my profile silhouette), I have six friends online and one of my friends, whom I was chatting to has now gone offline. The traffic-light colour system can’t go wrong!

Another cool little feature is that your notifications now arrive in the Chat bar, and while chatting you’ll see your friend’s Mini-Feed activity thrown into the conversation – as it happens in real-time! Cool ayh?

Facebook, having dealt with many issues on privacy in the past – Beacon, anyone? says that conversations on Facebook Chat are completely secure and private; and whilst Facebook tracks chat messages across sessions and pages, apparently they don’t log any chats on their servers.

Somethings that I really liked included the title of the page changing to say ‘New message from Friend’ when you receive a message, as well as the bar slightly ‘nudging’ whenever you receive a new message (although I think this is still a little buggy on Firefox 2)

I guess we’ll have to wait and see what else comes off this technology – but one thing’s for certain; Facebook know how to do those little things that keep making their offering special. It certainly keeps people coming back to see what’s new.

Based on the quick ten minute session I had to play around with it – one thing was certain: It’s nothing special in the world of online chat, which has now been around for at east ten years. However, one thing it is – is usable, smart and a perfect extension to the overall look and feel which Facebook is trying to master.
Till next time,

Cheb.

Today we will be looking at the top 10 reasons you as a web designer or web developer can justify a website redesign either to a client, or for your own websites. I will also set a scale of how important it is to get the web design process right!

Please keep in mind that when we use the term ‘redesign’ it doesn’t necessarily mean graphic redesign! It could stand for a graphic redesign incorporating development changes (i.e. total overhaul), but i could also be basic or limited functionality/additions which are needed to the site – such as SEO or content changes to make your site better than what it is! So without further ado:

Top 10 reasons to justify a website redesign

10. Your page title is something like ‘New document’ or ‘Index’ or ‘Insert title here’ – or you do not have META description and keywords tags.

Big, big no no.. SEO-wise, not having META description and META keyword tags is a big sacrilege. It is very important that a page title, along with at lease those two META tags are present on all pages. Page titles should make sense to readers first, search bots second. Make sure you do not call your page ‘ways-to-make-money-online’ because that is what your human-URL/post slug is! A page title should be descriptive and above all give the user a run-down of what they can expect to find on that page.

On the topic of ‘Why XML rocks!’ for example, good sample page titles which include textual branding include:

a. ’10 reasons why XML is king, online | Your blog name here’

b. ‘Extensible Markup Language: XML continues to deliver online | Your blog name here’

c. ‘How XML is changing the way businesses communicate | Your blog name here’

Having said that, make sure you don’t call your pages:

a. ‘Why XML rocks | Your blog name here’ – or;

b. ‘I love XML | Your blog name here’

The reason for this is that whilst some people might type ‘Why XML rocks’ in a search engine like Google, you stand to miss out on a lot more important key phrases such as: Extensible, Markup, Language, or ‘Extensible Markup Language’ (which is what XML stands for). If you notice my examples above, you will also see that you could potentially be missing out on a lot more important key phrases such as ‘online, businesses, communicate’.

9. Your site uses overlay graphics like snow falling or stars swirling or “insert shocking DHTML script here”

Oh my! Seriously? You’d be hard-pressed to list five benefits of doing this to your site! Excuses like ‘but the snow falling looks great in summer-time’ are not excuses at all! Anything that interrupts your readers/viewers from information they are trying to find or content they are trying to see is bad news! If you are hell-bent on getting into the festive season – put a Santa hat on your logotype or put a little spotlight under your side navigation with snow falling off that! Don’t use DHTML scripts from those free sites that apparently ‘bring your site to live’. They don’t help your SEO nor your rankings, nor the user experience – in my experience – at all!

8. Your website only works on Firefox/Internet Explorer/Safari

Your web presence should run in at least the two prominent browsers; Internet Explorer and Firefox. Generally speaking, most sites that run Internet Explorer and Firefox should also run in Safari, and Firefox for Mac. It will be to your advantage to get your site working in at least Firefox and Internet Explorer, but metrics such as Google Analytics will be able to help you in deciding what to target. Cross-browser testing is important in making sure users with different setups can access your information.

7. Most of the site is mostly made of graphics or flash

Flash is not search engine optimization’s best friend! The problem with flash sites is that unless there is a HTML-version which search bots can crawl for keywords and content; everything in terms of content, imagery, text, etc is embedded inside the flash file. Google might know that there is a file called ‘homepage.swf’, but this means nothing because all the information which is getting fed into flash is not being crawled. This is the same deal if your content or text is an image which is just sitting pretty on a background; ultimately Google might crawl the image itself, but will definitely miss the 50 or so words that are written ‘on’ the image itself. Don’t risk it!

Text should be text – images are solely for graphics or photos or a logo for example. There are still ways to work-around things that have to be images; such as your logo. An alt tag for example is important on images as well as possible over-layed text in a <h1> for example which is out of the user’s view so your logo does not get blocked.

6. Your website suffers from a very high bounce rate

A bounce rate is simply the number of visitors entering and leaving your site on the same page. So if a visitor clicks on your site from another site and then after viewing what you had to offer decided to leave – that would be considered a ‘bounce’. A high bounce rate is a tell-tale sign that you might need to redesign your content/pages. In most cases, simply moving content around (a different IA strategy) helps a lot – but there are circumstances when you cannot even do that due to the way the website has been put together.

Keep in mind that bounce rates being high aren’t always a bad thing! For example, checking the culprit of your bounce rate sometimes helps.

Here’s a scenario: a user Google‘s the terms ‘How to clear your cache in Internet Explorer’. Obviously, that user just wants the answer and does not know that ‘Control+F5′ clears your cache in IE. Your landing page, for whatever reason, has the exact same question with the answer. Lucky for you, you are number one in Google’s search results page for the term, and the user clicks on your site.

Cool news is that you have got another (possible) unique hit! Bad news is – at this time, the user has got what he or she was looking for and closes the browser window! That didn’t help your bounce rate, but hey – you got your site out there to more bodies – and that has to count for something!

My point is, sometimes a high bounce rate isn’t all non-satisfying, but there are always ways to drop it – which might lead to more hits towards your inner pages; the not-so-easy places to get visitors to.

5. Content is not easy to find

Content not being easy to find is a big problem. Make sure that you have a search on your site if you don’t have one at the moment. If you cannot make your own or your blog, etc does not come with one – use Google custom search – It is free and does the trick. However, please note that it is also important to make your content easy to find through a proper website structure and Information architecture. If you are getting complaints from your users that they are having problems finding information, or popular information is five clicks away – then you should be considering an updated site structure and possibly a redesign!

4. Your site is built on frames

Eeek! Frames are so Web 0.02 it’s not funny! Unless there is an absolute dire need to use frames – and generally speaking there isn’t.. Do not use them! (We have DIV’s and overlays these days!).

Let’s just say search engines don’t have a ball indexing a web site that is stuck in a frame or a frameset. In fact, Google mentions this in the Google Webmaster Help Center. if you have to use a frame on your blog or site for whatever reason, use the “NoFrames” tag to provide alternate content.

3. Your website looks like these:

Let’s just say – if your website looks like the sites above (click images to maximize!) – then you’re in desperate need of a redesign! And that doesn’t just involve a re-structure of your content!

2. Users complaining about bad navigation

“Apparently bad navigation doesn’t help your website these days” – that’s what a friend of mine said blatantly to me yesterday when we were chatting about his website! Well, thank you for that amazing revelation mate!

Navigation can make or break a site! Good navigation gives the user a clear, direct and rapid path to where they are trying to get to. Ultimately, keeping the user in mind when designing navigation is of utmost importance!

Think of it this way – just because you think your ‘about’ section is important doesn’t mean that your visitors do. They may want a quick way to access search (to look for products), or more importantly, the product range itself!

The best way to come up with good navigation is to work out what you are ultimately trying to achieve out of your website. Is it up there as a transactional site? Is it there just as an information-rich directory? Who is your target market/audience and what will they be looking for?

There are a lot of questions to be answered here and the process cannot happen overnight. Do some testing, ask around about what people currently think of your navigation – make it happen! Good old Google may find your linked information ten-levels deep (Yikes!) into your site – but your user’s most probably won’t!

1. Your website is no longer ‘doing anything’ for you or your business

At the end of the day, your website is supposed to be your business’ leading edge – an online store or entity which is available 24/7 365 days a year! Technology changes so fast these days it’s really hard keeping up!

If your website is no longer performing as you expect or your metrics are showing you numbers you never hoped to see; such as a consistent drop-off percentage, less click-throughs, high bounce rate, etc. then maybe you need to look at the reasons why this is happening.

If it turns out your site/blog is just suffering from the good old ‘left-behind syndrome’ then perhaps an update/redesign is what it needs to revive it!

Things you should be on the look out for include key phrases (ending in ‘ability’!) such as:

a. Accessibility – Making your site usable by everyone, including those with disabilities or restrictions

b. Usability – How easy it is for users to meet their goals using your site.

c. Findability – How easily found your site is using search engines.

d. Visibility – The position of your site in search engines or directories.

There we go! another one down. Hopefully you guys have picked up a thing a two here today and you can take it forward with you for when you do decide to redesign your website. Share this page with a friend (below) or add to digg/del.icio.us if you feel so inclined

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Our good friends over at LinkedIn have re-designed their website! Over the last couple of years, what started out as an experiment in social connectivity became the world’s leading business-oriented professional networking site. Although LinkedIn has always had a clean, uncluttered design that speaks for itself, it was probably about time for a little ‘Web 2′ face lift – and the new design definitely delivers.

So what has LinkedIn changed?

Top-level navigation:

The changes, as can be seen are quite substantial. Old-school tabs (which were nonetheless very usable), have been replaced with a ‘a la Facebook‘ style drop-down menu, which allows click-through for the parent pages. For example, clicking on ‘People’ above will take you to the ‘People’ main sub-page, while clicking on the arrow besides ‘People’ will allow you to jump to other subsequent pages belonging to the ‘People’ top-level menu. The navigation menu also follows through, throughout the site – something which is very important in information architecture and usability; and combined with the search bar in the same horizontal space, makes for a very-usable menu structure.

I think the top-level navigation is quite a big cleaner – with a lot more leaning towards a lot more whitespace – giving the website an open, dynamic feel.

Side-navigation & Widgets

The cool side of the new LinkedIn design includes changes to the way the user can interact with the website, and vice versa. The side navigation, which is clear, intuitive and flows throughout the website is dynamic – and more importantly allows the user to customise what menu options, i.e. ‘Groups’ or ‘Inbox’ they would like to me minimised or maximised, as they traverse the website. An example follows:

Finally, some cool social networking features. Firstly, as can be seen above, there is a new ‘What are you working on?’ feature. Relative to Facebook‘s status message(s), this handy little feature will broadcast your ‘status’ to yourconnections as a network update and will – as expected, appear as a new element on the profile page. Following in Facebook’s footsteps, LinkedIn let’s you control your status’ visibility and whether you want to see other peoples’ status in your network updates feed. And example follows:

Another new addition to the ranks on LinkedIn’s re-design are cool widgets (which LinkedIn will apparently be releasing more of!) that sit in the right-hand sidebar. They can be dragged-and-dropped into position and feature such information such as: Your profile snapshot (views, how many times you have appeared in search results, etc), as well as Q&A from the network, and finally jobs, and other links. Clicking on ‘edit’ as seen below, gives the user options that can be changed for that particular ‘widget’. For example, clicking ‘edit’ on the “Answers” widget, let’s you select what search answers category you would like – from a drop-down.

Let’s take a look at some other visual/functional comparisons.

The old LinkedIn contacts page:

The new LinkedIn contacts page:

The old LinkedIn (logged in) homepage:

The new LinkedIn (logged in) homepage:

So there you have it! The new LinkedIn homepage and review of a brand spankin’ new feature-set. Overall, I think the site is very usable, and more importantly, user-friendly. However, nothing is ever going to be 100% – and there are little quirks.

When JavaScript is disabled, as imagined, not many features are still usable. For example, the widgets are now gone, and you can’t even minimise/maximise your left-hand navigation! I mean hat’s off to LinkedIn for a great re-design, but I’m sure it would not have been hard to make a degradable-version of the website for when JavaScript is disabled or turned off (for whatever reason!). However, to LinkedIn’s defense, many important functions such as ‘Contacts’ page do have a ‘basic connection browser’ that whilst looking archaic, got the job done; which I thought was admirable!

There were also a few things that LinkedIn could work on to add that extra bit of professionalism to the site, and they include little things like making sure there aren’t too many different styles representing many of the same things; such as font/typeface choices on the interface – which seemed like ‘a bit of everything’. Adding onto that were very-minor things such as inconsistencies with buttons. Once again, all these things are very minor – and sometimes a consistent user experience comes second to the visual weighting and importance that colour and style bring to navigational/interface items.

A great design, from a great website!

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