Web design Deffects: Top ten !!

On this age of Websites ,just creating a website is not enough.Its like planning to build a house,spending lots in planning,designing and selecting material etc etc,then closing eyes.We don't know how the house is made of....sand or cement!!! We built a house but for our satisfaction of building something,we can't just be mad enough to stay in it....isn't it????

We build a website (our dream website!) spend sleepless nights in designing,coding....and some unit testing for sure!!Then with crossed fingers launch it expecting a lot of appreciation from the other side.But is the site paying back your effort?Are the users praising or even worse respecting your efforts?May be no!Why?

-->This is because they don't know what your site says....whats the purpose of your site.

-->May be your site is disrespecting or misleading their purpose.

-->May be they are not getting what your site wants to depict.

Following are some things which can users away from your site !!!

1) Whats the purpose of your site?

Too many organizations believe that a web site is about opening a new marketing channel or getting donations or to promote a brand. No! It's about solving your customers' problems.Users always have a purpose to fulfill and they come to your site to solve their purpose.They like the site which helps them solve their purpose easily and efficiently.If your site is easy and efficient then you get a user for life or untill the next redesign else the users always have a better option.

For example :Have a look at this site http://www.1amp.com/. Whats the purpose?

Suggestion : Always keep in mind !

• Users need/wants should be solved.
• They don't visit website to know about your organisation,they have a purpose and want to get that purpose done.
• Always make it sure to highlight the purpose of your site.

2) Making users guess!

Basically a result of Mistake 1 where the site doesn't reflect its purpose.Users sometimes dont know where to go and what to do?They know your site sells goods,but they can't find how to buy!! This will irritate users who often have less patience and more options(to search another site).

For Example : Guess how to use this site http://www.gaia-group.com/ !!!

Suggestion : Try out yourself !

• We should get the purpose of the site in say the first 10 seconds.
• Use common terms for common activities.Like for a shopping site,checkout and shopping cart are common terms which a general user will expect.Let them get what they expect!

3) Getting into the way of visitors:

Don't do anything that gets in the way of the sale.Some of the many techniques that get in the way : splash pages,animation,too much text,too many picture,etc.

Suggestion : Help your users pave their way towards using the site,don't divert them otherwise.

4) Navigation Failure :

Some sites make users think

• Where am I?
• Where have I been?
• Where can I go next?
• Where's the Home Page?

Common mistakes include different types of navigation on the same site, a link to the current page on the current page (home page link on home page), poorly worded links so the visitor doesn't know where he'll go if he clicks, no links back to the home page, and confusing links to the home page.

5) Mystery Meats Navigation :

Mystery meat navigation occurs when in order to find specific pages in a site,the user must mouse over unmarked navigation "buttons" - graphics that are usually blank or don't describe their function.

Example : Can you tell the next move http://www.gaia-group.com/index2.htm

Web designer and usability analyst Vincent Flanders described user interfaces in which it is inordinately difficult for users to discern the destination of navigational hyperlinks - or,in severe cases,even to determine where the hyperlinks are.
6)Forgetting the purpose of text:

Now a days picture or graphics are replacing text.But proper ratio of graphics and text is always benificial.Following are some difficulties faced if text is replaced with graphics:

• Users ignore legitimate design elements that look like prevalent forms of advertising.After all,when you ignore something,you don't study it in detail to find out what it is.
• It increases the size of the page;increasing page load time.
• It isn't search engine friendly.
• Designers are also fond of using small text which makes reading more difficult.

7) Too much material on one page:

A wall of text is deadly for an interactive experience.Intimidating.Boring.Painful to read.As I said proper proportion of text and graphics is very important; easy to understand and explains concept best.

With so much content vying for attention it’s initially impossible for the eye to settle on one thing. People get confused and people leave.

Following are some tips:

• Subheads
• Bulleted lists
• highlighted keywords
• Short paragraphs
• A simple writing style,and
• de-fluffed language.

8) Not Answering Users Questions:

Users are highly goal-driven on the Web.They visit sites because there's something they want to accomplish--maybe even buy your product.The ultimate failure of a website is to fail to provide the information users are looking for.If you use a vague link description or just say"Click Here" and don't tell people where they'll end up, they could be horribly surprised

For Example: The worst example would be a ecommerce site withour rice listing for their products.

Suggestion: 1) Our site should have direct and accurate answeres to users questions.

2) If you're a dentist, then your web site should look like it belongs to a dentist, not to someone who is going to the opera.Be specific to purpose !

9) Voilating Design conventions :

Consistency is one of the most usability principles,when things always behave the same,users don't have to worry about what will happen.Instead,they know what will happen based on earlier experience and so they feel comfortable and friendly.

10) Misuse of Flash :

Imagine...you have to watch a boring, soundless, twenty second flash intro with no option to skip it. If you're still around when the content loads, the pain doesn't stop. There is a lovely 8 or 10 second delay between when you click one of the navigation options and when the content actually arrives.

I'd like to mention that you often find Flash with Mystery Meat Navigation — taking one bad technique and making it four times worse.

Use of flash is very helpful for better understanding but we should have an option to "Skip it" if we want to and we should make sure that we should use it where needed.

Well this is it!!! Hope it give an insite into the major drawbacks which websites face now-a-days.

Waiting for feedback !!!

Thanks

Gargi

Failover Testing

-->Failover is a backup operation that automatically switches to a standby database, server or network if the primary system fails or is temporarily shut down for servicing.

--> It is an important fault tolerance function of mission-critical systems that rely on constant accessibility. Failover automatically and transparently to the user redirects requests from the failed or down system to the backup system that mimics the operations of the primary system.

Typically used interchangeably with 'recovery testing',it is testing how well a system recovers from crashes, hardware failures, or other catastrophic problems.

Following is a brief description which I had collected from online docs available.Hope this will give an insight on the topic.

Objectives of Failover Testing.

The idea behind a failover system is that if the primary component fails, the secondary system should automatically engage. Theoretically, this means you should be able to just pull the plug on the primary system and watch the secondary system instantly take over (Don't Do That!).

-->The primary objective of Failover testing is to test system recovery measures in place for a production architecture.

-->Failover testing provides technology specialists a realistic benchmark of how a mission critical component will respond when failure occurs on the network.

When to do Failover Testing.

-->Failover testing is done prior to any performance specific testing on an environment that mimics production.

-->Failover testing will ensure that the hardware and software components will react accordingly when a failure occurs.

[Fail-Back Testing - Fail-back testing should also be employed to verify that when a component is back functioning correctly, that it is available to take load again and sustain the influx of activity when it joins the infrastructure again.]

Example:

In a web environment, failover testing determines what will happen if multiple web servers are being used under peak anticipated load, and one of them dies.

This is just one of many failover configurations. Some failover configurations can be quite complex, especially when there are redundant sites as well as redundant equipment and communications lines. In this type of configuration, when one of the application servers goes down, then the two web servers that were configured to communicate with the failed application server can not take load from the load balancer, and all of the load must be passed to the remaining two web servers.

When such a failover event occurs, the web servers are under substantial stress, as they need to quickly accommodate the failed over load, which probably will result in doubling the number of HTTP connections as well as application server connections in a very short amount of time. The remaining application server will also be subjected to severe increase in load and the overheads associated with catering for the increased load.It is crucial to the design of any meaningful failover testing that the failover design is understood, so that the implications of a failover event, while under load can, be scrutinized.

Hope this is helpful!!!