During page California Web design, rank the information you want to display, and then position the most important in the middle of the window, the next most important across the top, and so on, with the least important or static information in the left margin.



GUIDE THE USER'S EYE

The user can traverse a page in a variety of ways. Human engineering studies show a wide range of results when tracking user's eye movements. As you plan your design to guide the user's eye, consider the online reading habits.

As a function of normal reading habits, the user's eye may move form left to right and back again, shows this viewing pattern applied to the pen & Ink Web site. Because this web site is design for users who are most comfortable with paper-based information, the page encourages a paper-based reading pattern.

In contrast, when viewing landscape-based displays, such as shown in shows this viewing style overlaying the E online San Francisco Web Designsite. As the user's eyes sweep over the page, they can take in most of the main content. Because this site is designed for users who are most accustomed to screen based information, the page encourages a screen-based viewing pattern.

Knowing these common user habits can help you decide where to focus the user's attention by object placement, text weight, and color use. Think about your grid structure and how you want to break out of it to attract attention. Use text weight and size to communicate relative importance of information. Break section up with rules or active white space. Use shapes and color to reinforce location or topic. Get to know your users, and consider the two viewing methods described above as you experiment with content placement based on the way these users will view the page.

KEEP A FLAT HIERARCHY

DO not make users navigate through too many layers of your Web site to find the information they want. Structure your Web site to include section or topic-level navigation pages so users quickly find their path. Provide prominent navigation cues that quickly take your user to the content they desire. Standard navigation bar, consistently placed on every page, reassures users that they will not get lost, and lets them move through the site with flexibility.

Consider providing a site map that graphically displays a user's location in your Web site.

This graphical view of the Web site shows all the individual pages and the section in which they reside. It also provides a text box where users can enter keywords to find related information. Users can click to go directly to a page, orient themselves to the site's content. or search the site. This is a good of a graphical site map that fills more than one type of user need.