十大网站设计错误——2007

此篇来自于尼尔森最新的Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design，在2007年的升级中，尼尔森再次提出了十大网站设计错误。分别是：

1. Bad Search　

Overly literal search engines reduce usability in that they're unable to handle typos, plurals, hyphens, and other variants of the query terms. Such search engines are particularly difficult for elderly users, but they hurt everybody.

A related problem is when search engines prioritize results purely on the basis of how many query terms they contain, rather than on each document's importance. Much better if your search engine calls out "best bets" at the top of the list -- especially for important queries, such as the names of your products.

Search is the user's lifeline when navigation fails. Even though advanced search can sometimes help, simple search usually works best, and search should be presented as a simple box, since that's what users are looking for.

注：以下内容并不是翻译
坏的搜索。尼尔森开始质疑起了搜索引擎，近年来的搜索引擎的确做的很火，往往你搜索到一个关健词，搜索引擎按轻重缓急安排搜索结果时，确勿略了可用性。这里尼尔森举到了产品的例子，比如我想搜索的我自己的产品，但无关紧要的关健字却排在了第一位。这的确是很失望的事情，想找重要的东西找不着。那么如果把重要的东西排在前面，即改变搜索引擎的机器算法，人工操作改善可用性。那是否背离的搜索引擎的原则？

2. PDF Files for Online Reading

Users hate coming across a PDF file while browsing, because it breaks their flow. Even simple things like printing or saving documents are difficult because standard browser commands don't work. Layouts are often optimized for a sheet of paper, which rarely matches the size of the user's browser window. Bye-bye smooth scrolling. Hello tiny fonts.

Worst of all, PDF is an undifferentiated blob of content that's hard to navigate.

PDF is great for printing and for distributing manuals and other big documents that need to be printed. Reserve it for this purpose and convert any information that needs to be browsed or read on the screen into real web pages.

注：以下内容并不是翻译
在线阅读PDF文档。这个不得不说是“流氓行为”，尼尔森认为在线阅读中断了用户的流程，可能用户就只是打印或下载文档。我是极为反感adobe的这种方式，但无疑，这也是一种给PDF格式的流行铺开道路的途径。你可以认为方式这种是当年的hao123，现在转正为百度了。

3. Not Changing the Color of Visited Links

A good grasp of past navigation helps you understand your current location, since it's the culmination of your journey. Knowing your past and present locations in turn makes it easier to decide where to go next. Links are a key factor in this navigation process. Users can exclude links that proved fruitless in their earlier visits. Conversely, they might revisit links they found helpful in the past.
Most important, knowing which pages they've already visited frees users from unintentionally revisiting the same pages over and over again.

These benefits only accrue under one important assumption: that users can tell the difference between visited and unvisited links because the site shows them in different colors. When visited links don't change color, users exhibit more navigational disorientation in usability testing and unintentionally revisit the same pages repeatedly.

注：以下内容并不是翻译
不改变访问过后的链接颜色，这个问题不想说了，目前的网易首页这一点做的相当好。

4. Non-Scannable Text

A wall of text is deadly for an interactive experience. Intimidating. Boring. Painful to read.
Write for online, not print. To draw users into the text and support scannability, use well-documented tricks:

subheads
bulleted lists
highlighted keywords
short paragraphs
the inverted pyramid
a simple writing style, and
de-fluffed language devoid of marketese.

不能扫视的文本。这点尼尔森在书中多次提过，用户是在“扫”文字，而不是“阅读”文字，对措辞控制是一个基本功。

5. Fixed Font Size

CSS style sheets unfortunately give websites the power to disable a Web browser's "change font size" button and specify a fixed font size. About 95% of the time, this fixed size is tiny, reducing readability significantly for most people over the age of 40.
Respect the user's preferences and let them resize text as needed. Also, specify font sizes in relative terms -- not as an absolute number of pixels.

固定字体大小。CSS可以控制字体的小大，我们大多在使用这一点使文字变为好看的宋体9px，但忽略了超过40岁用户的感受。同时也禁止掉了浏览器的“改变字体大小”的功能。我老爸一直问我，这个站文字太小了，在看到不能改变的时候，我只能告诉老爸使用Maxthon的放大页面功能。