Ask Eric: Questions & Answers

June 13, 2006 – submitted by Winston Whitely of Atlanta, GA

Question: Hello Eric, I am to design 4 different look-and-feels for a Government portal. They want to choose one and implement the design using various tools, such as: Webspere, city Seal, sharepoint. We also want to incorporate new features. such as: My personal page, advanced search, a dynamic flash advertising area. I'm starting to gather requirements, etc. What should my time frame be for such an undertaking and what problems should I foresee? What is the best place to start. They are looking for something fresh. My goal is to achieve excellence...

Eric's response: Well I can't say I totally understand what you are trying to accomplish. It sounds like a combination of visual design and functional additions.

If you are addressing visual appearance (I have no idea why a government portal would want four skins) then the process requires:

1. Definition of brand objectives.
There are specialists in this area that will generally take 1-2 months to define a set of brand characteristics. Other times executives just guess. But at the end you have a list of descriptive terms (ie. we are bold, fresh, keen, and responsive). 2. Creative design
Based on the brand characteristics the visual design team creates a set of possible alternatives. There is good data to suggest that parallel design (having several graphic artists work independently) is a good practice. I would expect 1-2 weeks of work creating alternatives.
3. Selection and refinement
Complete a brand perception test with actual target users. Here they select the version that is the most "bold," the most "fresh," etc. You will see the ones that best fit the target brand values. Then you can tweak them to reduce any problems (this is the most fresh, but a bit unresponsive... So we will add elements from the most responsive design). This whole process will take maybe 7-8 days.

In terms of functional additions I would need to know more about the planned enhancements. Some can be done in a couple of weeks. Others deserve significant research, design work, and iterative testing.

May 12, 2006 – submitted by Caroline of Manitoba, Canada

Question: I'm part of a team redesigning the corporate Web site for a company that provides mortgages, and we're currently having a discussion about what should be included on the FAQ page.

One group wants generic "what do I need to know about mortgages" questions (which pretty much reproduce the content on other pages – without directing the reader to those pages – and do not include anything about the company's specific products). The other group wants questions specific to the company's products that are not answered elsewhere on the site.

Are there any guidelines about which is preferable? Any help you can give us would be appreciated.

Eric's response: First, it turns out that FAQs ARE actually read. So they are useful (more so than, for example, help facilities). They generally include questions that someone would ask AFTER they have read the site. They are NOT supposed to be a reiteration of the site. If you run usability tests or field questions for site users you may know what they would typically ask.

March 27, 2006 – submitted by Sunil Assudani of India

Question: Is there any specific font type, size and color should I consider depending upon the type of industry (IT, Automotive... etc.) I am designing for?

Eric's response: No. Not in terms of performance. The common fonts all test pretty much the same and do best with a white background. So there are no performance differences.

Now you mean styles that support a brand, and there is little proscriptive data (which means you have to try different styles and test the resulting brand perception).

February 23, 2006 – submitted by Phil Leitch of Fargo, ND

Question: I've recently encountered quite a few clients that are concerned with the "whitespace" being wasted on forms we've designed for them and asked that the forms be placed in multiple columns to fill that space. The only reason they ask is because they feel screen space is being wasted, there is no usability concern from them.

Looking at previous answers I find differing information and wonder if you could clear it up.

You've said both of the following: "reasonably dense forms are better than lots of scrolling" and "columns are suboptimal". When it comes to online forms what is ideal? I tend to think one column with the fields in a logical order.

And just to reiterate, in all cases the only reason the clients (unfortunately a few co-workers also feel this way) want to use two or more columns is they feel screen space is wasted.

Sometimes the one-column forces scrolling, which I don't feel is a problem, and is sometimes a secondary argument against a single-column form.

Eric's response: Obviously, if there is no need for content, we do not create additional fields to fill white space. But when you consider the tradeoff, it is FAR better to use multiple columns, than to have white space but have to scroll or move between pages. There are nuances based on user type. If people will use the form only once, then a bit more whitespace is worthwhile. If the user fills the form often, make it very dense. Multiple columns are needed for sure.

January 18, 2006 – submitted by Neha Parekh of India

Question: I have a question regarding placement of PRINT and CLOSE buttons on a read only mode of popup. Explanation:
- On a page, we have a link to a report as: Report A.
- Based on user's login rights, one can view a read-only mode or editable mode of the report.
- User XYZ has read-only rights.
- He clicks on Report A and gets a popup.
- So on the bottom right corner of the popup should we have buttons as:
PRINT CLOSE
or
CLOSE PRINT
- Assuming print is the only action that users will perform on a read-only mode.

Eric's response: Well it is probably more important to be consistent than which sequence you choose. But I would suggest using "Print" then "Close." There is a convention that "Cancel" functions are rightmost in a window. So this would follow that principle.