Web Design For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 17. Ten Information and Interaction Design Tips

In This Chapter

• Creating navigation sets

• Using wireframes to work out interaction design and layout

• Labeling your buttons and icons

• Orienting people in your Web site

• Providing a link to the home page

• Designing buttons that look clickable

• Grouping buttons of similar function together

• Developing a theme for your site

• Color-coding strategy

As a Web designer, you must be familiar with strategies that enhance the usability of a site. The way you structure information and design navigation systems to get around are the crux of good site design. Once the bones (as I like to say) are worked out, the next layer is the page-level interaction and visual design of the site.

In one convenient chapter, I've consolidated the top ten information, interaction, and visual design strategies that you can keep on hand the next time you embark on a Web site project.

Use Only Five to Seven Main Categories

Five and seven are magic numbers in life because remembering a list of five to seven things is easy. Any more than that and our brains lose track. Maybe it's because we have five fingers on each hand. We can mentally attach one item to each digit, and if we've had enough coffee, we can remember a few more items on the next hand.

You may think that I'm joking, but I've heard from psychologists-turned-interface-designers that the five finger phenomenon actually has ...