Study on Web Pages that really produce results.

[corey]

Does anyone know of a recent study or articles online that deal with the structure of web pages? By this i mean where to place key elements of pages (ie. submit buttons, forms, where to put the most important info, etc.). I'm curious to know what works and what doesn't work. I have my own results but would like to read about what others have found out. Thanks for your help.

[Nick_W]

Hi Corey

Check your sticky mail ;-)

Nick

[corey]

Thank you for your help Nick.

[mahlon]

Could you send me a sticky too Nick? Thanks!

[CromeYellow]

Hey Corey, that's a question I'd really like to know the answer to!

Nick? :)

Cy

[deejay]

heh.. Nick... while you're at it... me too please?

[pageoneresults]

Hey Nick, I'll take one too if you don't mind!

[paynt]

Ok, I'll bite - could you pass this on? Thanks!

[papabaer]

Nick, I know you have some excellent insight on the subject. Would you consider beginning a new thread that elaborates?

I for one, would love to see the various viewpoints. I'm certain a lot of valuable information will come to light.

[edited by: papabaer at 9:04 am (utc) on June 11, 2002]

[madcat]

articles online that deal with the structure of web pages?

[thenoodleincident.com ]

This is by far one of the best design theory articles out there. If there is a better one sticky mail me;)

M

[papabaer]

That article is one that added to my belief that we were making things too difficult and complex. I still believe there are two primary divisions of webdevelopers: those who live to code regardless of content and those who code for content.

Think about it before you strive to add a 100x120px scrolling div using 9px red text on a black background. Or incorporate complex flyout menus for no other reason than to look "cool." Are you attempting to deliver content in a useable fashion? Or just flexing some dhtml might?

Yes... there is room for everything and no offense meant. But you should always be your own harshest critic before you add complexity whare none is needed. Imho of course! :)

[SmallTime]

Very good. Also good sites on css positioning mentioned in the article.

[Nick_W]

Hi

Sorry everyone!

I sent corey something I wrote, but after a pause for thought, perhaps it would be a good idea to start a new thread on the subject.

Stay tuned, i'll post it shortly...

The reason I didn't put it on the board was I wasn't sure that it was quite what corey was after and as I wrote it I thought it might look a littel self promotionary ;)

Nick

[edited by: Nick_W at 8:56 am (utc) on June 11, 2002]

[Marcia]

I have been struggling for over a week with trying to come up with an interface for a site, and still haven't touched down with it.

It's one of those that generally follow a certain look and format within a niche, but I question how well that works, especially in the case where a site needs to appeal not only to the niche buyer of a few low-ticket items, but to broaden the scope to actually look like a "business" site that will appeal to the wholesale sector rather than that of a hobbyist with the look that most of them have of that type.

IMHO sometimes the hardest thing can be to pinpoint and predict what will work for gearing toward a particular market if there's more than one being targeted. In this case it would have one look for the home consumer, which would be easy, but deciding what will appeal to serious wholesale buyers may or may not be the same look and style.

[papabaer]

Producing results. That by itself really is not enough. What kind of results? Negative? Positive? Or dispassionate...

Tough question and a tougher task as Marcia has pointed out. What sort of stimuli, visual cues, "bread-crumb trails" are need to motivate a site visitor to a successful site experience?

I'd love to read some opinions.. I guess the most obvious place to start is to identify your site's goals. After that... where do we go?

I'm looking forward to reading what Nick is preparing...

[edited by: papabaer at 9:06 am (utc) on June 11, 2002]

[brotherhood of LAN]

>where do we go?

It is definetely a broad and applicable question. I just wanted to slide in by saying that lots of whitespace is a good thing. Although it may not produce results, it provides a good background for your results to be placed on! :)

[Marcia]

We had a thread or two right in this forum a number of weeks ago that discussed this very thing, with references to research papers, usability studies, the whole enchilada!

Where is paynt? We need our research expert on finding where everything is that pertains to anything at all we're looking for. Those posts touched on this very topic, in depth; it was just called something else.

[quiet_man]

Marcia - not sure if it's the same thread you are thinking of, but this one -

[webmasterworld.com...]

- has Tips and Tricks for good Web design. More about performance than results, though. Also this thread -

[webmasterworld.com...] -

on Truly Dreadful Websites, discusses ugly sites that still sell.

(Go Nick go ... a forum awaits!)

[corey]

Man, i didn't think that there would be this big of a response to a simple question. Nick, sorry about that. I hope you don't mind being overloaded with questions. Let me know where that thread is and maybe i can answer some questions also.

-Corey