Web-based viral campaigns have a primary purpose of communicating information; however, effective communication is not always achieved because of a site’s poor design, particularly with the use of aesthetics and navigation.
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Matthews (1999) states that interface aesthetics has a positive effect on the usability of a web site. Aesthetic elements include colour, font, layout and images. These elements should take into consideration the type of user, ranging from novice user, knowledgeable but intermittent user and expert frequent user.
Contrasting colours "produce better images, are more pleasing pairings, and are easier to discern than colours that lack contrast" (Matthews, 1999). Combinations of colours opposite one another on the colour wheel, such as yellow and red, make excellent pairings.
Saturated colours should not be incorporated into a design because they cause users to develop visual fatigue (Matthews, 1999). A saturated colour is one that is not mixed with any other colour, for example, saturated blue and saturated green.
The human eye cannot see blue as well as other colours, therefore Matthews (1999) states that it should not be used for text or anything critical to the function of the site. However, blue does work well as a background colour.
There are several types of font that exist today, all of which are categorised into two major classes: serif and sans serif. Serif fonts, which include Times New Roman, are believed to be more legible and pleasing to users (Matthews, 1999). To enhance readability and aesthetic appeal, fonts should include variations in format, weight (regular or bold) and size (Matthews, 1999).
Matthews (1999) suggests that there are three ways to organize a screen: a grid structure, standardization, and grouping by relationships, the most common being the latter.
Grouping by relationships involves "grouping all of the information or items on the screen into groups based on their relationship to one another. The resulting group of related elements is displayed as a unit and it is distinguished from the other groups of elements, which are related in their own accord" (Matthews, 1999).
Images can be used as a useful tool in web design; however it can also be a distraction to the site’s purpose. There are four functions of images identified by Levie and Lentz, (Skaalid, 1999) as attentional, affective, cognitive, and compensatory.
"Few web sites succeed unless users can efficiently find the content they are interested in" (Farkas and Farkas 2000, p.341). The usability of a site has much to do with navigation design.
Farkas and Farkas (2000, pp.342-355) outline twelve guidelines to effective navigation design; however, only three are essential.
1. Be sure that all links indicate that they are links
All links should indicate that they are a link by:
2. Work to ensure that users will view and notice links
The key point to this guideline is that visual complexity makes links difficult to notice. Therefore, a page design should not be cluttered.
3. Provide a link to the home page throughout the site
This technique serves several purposes, ranging from helping the user who gets lost in the site, to one who simply wants to begin a search for different information. "A convention is emerging in which a corporate logo is recognized as a link to the home page" (Farkas and Farkas, 2000, p.355).
Donnabel Guillermo 23:37, 12 Oct 2005 (EST)
