Web UI Design
(for EECS 495 NUVW)
ben@slivka.com
www.slivka.com/2011-02-15.ppt
Overview
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Ben’s UI experience
Dominant Design
Copy Wildly
A quick tour of the Top 20 web sites
Ben’s Web UI Principles
Slivka.com UI evolution
Q&A
Ben’s UI Experience
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HP 25C “lunar lander” (’76)
Litton 1880: biorhythm, “racing” game (’77)
Punched cards, green-bar paper, 110b, mainframes (’76-’85)
IBM 3270: DCR tracking tool (’83)
OS/2: process status, printer installer (’85-’90)
MS-DOS 6: DoubleSpace, ScanDisk (’92-’93)
CAB files (’93-’94)
Internet Explorer 1, 2, 3 (’94-’95)
“RedShark” UI prototype (’97-’98)
AMZN: “Arizona” customer service web app (’00)
Slivka.com, NU1982.org, Banderooge.com, … (’97-now)
Vizrea (’05-’07)
TeachFirst (’03-’08)
DreamBox Learning (’06-’10)
Dominant Design
• “Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation”,
1994, Jim Utterback (BSIE ’63, MSIE ’65)
• Examples
– Manual typewriter (keyboard layout)
– Automobile (pedals, steering wheel, …)
– Character-mode apps in MS-DOS®
– Inside Macintosh (1985)
– Windows/IBM “Common User Access” (1987)
 CLAIM: DD has arisen for web UI, so…
…Copy Wildly
• Leverage the billions of dollars and hours
Yahoo, Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc.
and their users have invested
• Leverage the muscle memory and neural
programming people already have
Don’t have to know “why” DD is what it is
Just find a popular site and copy
Ben’s Web UI Principles
• Copy Wildly
• KISS Principle
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Fast
Minimal
Reliable
Simple URLs
On-Demand UI
• Black on White
• Site Search
• Top of Page has:
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Branding
Menu (short)
User ID
Search
Tour of the Top 20 Websites
1) google.com
2) facebook.com
3) yahoo.com
4) youtube.com
5) amazon.com
6) wikipedia.org
7) ebay.com
8) blogger.com
9) twitter.com
10) craigslist.org
11) live.com
12) msn.com
13) linkedin.com
14) go.com
15) bing.com
16) aol.com
17) cnn.com
18) paypal.com
19) espn.com
20) netflix.com
Ben’s Web UI Principles
• Copy Wildly
• KISS Principle
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–
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Fast
Minimal
Reliable
Simple URLs
On-Demand UI
• Black on White
• Site Search
• Top of Page has:
–
–
–
–
Branding
Menu (short)
User ID
Search
KISS Principle
• Kelly Johnson, Lockheed Skunk Works
– “Keep it simple stupid” (design jet aircraft to
be repaired with simple tools in the field)
• Albert Einstein
– “Everything should be made as simple as
possible, but no simpler.”
• Leonardo da Vinci
– “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
 Metaphor, analogy, muscle memory
KISS: Fast
• Supports UI discovery (trial and error)
• Fast means
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Fast page load (<1 second goal)
Modest use of images (branding, photos)
No text as graphics (copy, web search)
Clever use of JavaScript (AJAX)
Fast, obvious response to user action
Big vs. Small screen (mobile) UI designs
Automatic (minimize user effort)
 Facebook used to report page load time on
every page; now it can often be very sluggish
KISS: Minimal
• Minimize concepts/metaphors, words, visuals
• Form Follows Function (no graphic designers)
• Careful: left side menus for complex sites
(shopping, news are worst offenders)
• Careful: hierarchy, breadcrumb navigation
(ibm.com > about > leadership > board)
• “Elements of Style”, Strunk & White
• “The Magical Number Seven”
– Keep lists short, multiple lists in rare cases
– Alphabetize (avoid Schwab.com, etc.)
KISS: Reliable
• Be consistent:
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Concepts, words, visual elements
Focus Areas (system structure/function)
Navigation elements
Defaults (easy to change)
• Never lose data (continuous save, page
navigation, remember state, errors)
• Undo (everywhere, provide history)
• Avoid modality (FB “peephole” pop-ups)
• Fast/easy bug/feedback mechanism (Google)
KISS: Simple URLs
• People email, dictate, type in URLs, so…
• Short
+ www.slivka.com/about, www.slivka.com/contact, www.youtube.com/benslivka
• Human-readable
+ http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Style-Fourth-William-Strunk/dp/020530902X
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http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ferrari-430-Berlinetta-05-F430-F1-Ceramics-Daytonas-etc_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem27b8222c5aQQitemZ170592971866QQptZUSQ5fCars
Q5fTrucks#ht_6485wt_1002
– http://www.bsd405.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1521
• Stable
– Never change
• Hide implementation
– No .php, .asp, .html, etc. suffixes
KISS: On-Demand UI
• Contextual Menus: provide more commands
– Facebook, LinkedIn, Bing, Ongo, etc. have
menus/commands that appear when you hover near
content on the page
• Pop-Ups: provide more info
– “Slide out” information (Google, Facebook)
– DHTML pop-up (modal, Facebook abuses these)
– Browser window pop-up (older)
• Tradeoff: discoverability vs. too-busy page
Black on White
• Black text on white background
• Use reasonable font size
• Don’t use color alone (color blindness)
Highest contrast
Copy/paste works best
More legible on PC, smartphone, tablet
Best for people with visual impairment
(including those using screen readers)
Site Search
• People surfing the web are impatient
• Google, et. al., have conditioned us to
search
• Hunting through a hierarchy is barely OK
for browsing, frustrating if you know what
you are looking for and cannot find it
• Facebook search: name, email, page, …
 Every website should have great (and
smart) site search
Top of Page
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Branding: logo, color/image band
Menu: short, consistent page to page
User ID: email address or username
Search: prominent search box
Date/Time: mostly for news sites
slivka.com: 1997-2011
• www.archive.org “Wayback Machine” has
archives of web pages as far back as 1996
– (Archive has become much less complete
since 2006)
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1997 initial design
2001 “frames” design
2001 side-by-side design
2004 thumbnail design
Ben’s Web UI Principles
• Copy Wildly
• KISS Principle
–
–
–
–
–
Fast
Minimal
Reliable
Simple URLs
On-Demand UI
• Black on White
• Site Search
• Top of Page has:
–
–
–
–
Branding
Menu (short)
User ID
Search
Q&A