8 Golden Rules The 8 Golden Rules have been createdto keep well designed user interactions with technologies. The main goal is tomake the technology easy to navigate and use successfully. Below are the 8golden rules and how the website meets or fails expectations.Strive for consistency There isvery little consistency found within the website. Virtually all elements aredifferent. There are many colors that are bright and take attention away fromother sections. There is clearly no theme that has been followed because eachelement is different.
Successful websites employ templates that have a clearand organized direction. All the pictures are different sizes. For example,there are several that are placed upside down. Finally, there is aninconsistent mix of titles, pictures, and text. Seekuniversal usability Withthis website, users with basic or advanced knowledge should be able to navigatewithout issue. There should be at the least a FAQ section for basic users whoneed more guidance. Links to other information should be easily identifiable sothat they are easy to locate. There is one identifiable universal feature foundon the website.
There are links to navigate to other pages that are foundthroughout. Beyond this there are no explanations for what or where things are.There is no clear direction which is confusing for all user levels. A lot oftime is spent trying to find desired information.Offerinformative feedback Whilenavigation through the website there should be some feedback so that users knowthat desired operations are successful. The most prominent inconsistent part ofthe feedback is when selecting a link that then goes to another page. So onceselected or clicked on the color of the text selected should change in color.This change in color is to leave a marker behind for the user so that they knowthat they have already explored a certain link.
Designdialogs to yield closure Allcomponents of the website should be in an organized and easy to run down order.If there is a process, there should then be a beginning, middle, and end. Inthis case, there is no sequence. There is one main page that contains alllinks.
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There is no title bar or category list so users can see all the contentthat is offered. Again, there is too much information located on the main pagewith no fluency.Preventerrors Errorsare critical mistakes that users can make within a website. Typically, errorsinvolve information that is manually inputted. Unless the coding allows for allcharacters, some inputs are typed incorrectly which will return wrong results.Within this website there are not any places for manual direct manipulation ofinformation. The minimized user input saves many errors from occurring.
Theonly errors are because of poor design and execution which leads to a lot ofconfusion and frustration.Permit easyreversal of actions At firstglance it is easy to back out of linked pages and go back to the main page.However, the more you select links and look deeper into information it becomesharder to reverse actions. There is no title bar so easy navigation isimpossible. The only way to reverse actions is to keep selecting back in theinternet window.Keep usersin control Users mustfeel in control while using a website.
With worlds worst, most users are incomplete control. All videos are easily controlled as they are embedded in thelinked pages. While navigating it is hard to see that you are in controlbecause there is too much going on at once.
There is a floating box in thebackground that is very distracting. An option to pause the box should be madeavailable.Reduceshort-term memory loadThis website does not reduceshort-term memory load, it increases it by far. Since there is no organizationor title bar, there is no way to remember where things are located or how tonavigate to them. It is because of this user are forced to write down wherethey have gone and read. There is too much information on the pages and thatbecomes overwhelming. It takes more effort to separate all this information sothat what is desired can be viewed. (Shneiderman,pg.
1)ConsistencyConsistency is what can make or breaka website. When designing a website templates should be designed so that atheme is present. This theme would apply to the background, font, and allcolors present. Continuing with a theme, the content should also follow one. Awebsite should have a clear purpose so that information can be displayed in anappropriate manner.
If there is not consistency, users will quickly move ontoanother that is easier to use.Unfortunately, worlds-worst-websitedoes not have any features that are consistent. The background contains manypictures that are set to repeat across the entirety of the home page. The fontheadings are also all different sizes and texts. As far as links there are avariety of ways in which they are displayed in tables. There are some that justcontain text with unformatted shapes and colors.
Most links have picturesattached to them and the box formatting’s are all different. There are severalpictures that do not match up with the text that is below the picture, which ismisleading. Finally, there are links that are not clearly marked as such, theylook like pictures. It is because of these confusing features, it is very hardto navigate to the desired information.Cognitive WalkthroughThe cognitive walkthrough is a formalized way ofimagining people’s thoughts and actions when they use an interface for thefirst time.
Walkthroughs identify problems that new users will have when theyfirst use an interface. You select one of the tasks that the design is intendedto support and then you step through the task, action by action, seeing if youcan identify any problems with the interface. (Travis, pg. 1) This is the bestway to test a website and see what can be fixed. This walkthrough was very hard to conduct because thereis no clear direction, so the sequence of actions is unique to each individualuser. After inputting the URL the user is taken to the main page. The firstthing seen is the moving mint green dialog box. After searching there is no wayto pause or stop the moving element.
There is no title bar or navigation toolanywhere on the page. All available titles and links are different sizes,colors, and are placed different within each table. Bright colors are the firstto catch the eye, in this case it’s the ” Worst Toad”. There is only a graphicand link to another page. After selecting, the user is taken to another pagethat includes various information about the toad. Once the bottom of the textis reached there is a large and easy to read “Next” button. Without realizingthat there is text under the button because it blends in to the page, it seemslike one is forced to click the button.
Another random page is pulled up.Intending to get back to the main page the user scrolls back to the top andselects “Home”. A Featured Items page appears instead of the intended mainpage. There are more organized tables with graphics and just plain text. Again,whatever is eye catching will pull the user in first. In this case, it is aswirl bright graphic. Assuming that when clicking on it, another page willopen. The “Subliminal Suggester” game begins as soon as the page opens.
These fast-movinggraphics are distracting and force the user to scroll down to select stop. Nowtrying to get back to the main page, the back button within the browser isselected. After pressing the back button four times, the user is brought to theoriginal main page as desired. Now that the contents and directions have beenseen to be disorganized, users will exit completely or look for contactinformation or any help page. While scrolling down to the bottom of the page,there is only a “thank you for looking” graphic.
Final Thoughts All inall, this website does not follow the 8 Golden Rules. There is a lot ofinformation that is not organized at all. This makes it virtually impossible tosuccessfully navigate. None of the links are formatted correctly and uniform sothat they can be picked out easily. There is no positive user interaction as itis all just chaos. None of the pages link the way they should.
The colors areall over the place and distract and hurt the eye. In totality, the website ishard to use and does not offer anything. A title bar, category list, ornavigation tools will alleviate much of the confusion when it comes to movingthroughout the website. This website will not attract nor keep any user trafficbecause of all its flaws.
With a correctly setup and format template, all pagescould be organized and flow well.
