What makes a website design a problem talking about the "negative mode" of user experience

As a user of a website, you may often find that when you use a website, some things are annoying. For example, a login form, or navigation, or an entire Web application, can make it difficult for you to accomplish a task. What is the reason for the design of the site to create these problems?

The answer is complicated. The first problem is that designers may have overlooked a very important point: testing the actual user. The reason for this problem is usually that designers take it for granted that they know how to handle the interactive details of a particular part of the site. Because many designers feel that they have seen similar interactions in other cases, the original designer must have tested it, why is it superfluous? Just bring it here. So, we frequently look at other people's written CSS open source code base, copied directly into their own design, and not in the real scene test. In this way, we have unconsciously built a set of templates to pile up the work.

Some templates are more effective, but some are problematic. If you think of these templates as the wheel, then often you directly put the wheels on the car may be bicycle wheels, donkey head to horse mouth. So yes, you should redesign the wheels for your car and try the wheels on the car.

The things you have to think about:

-Your users are not necessarily the same as Amazon, Google's target users, or even your competitors ' users. To figure out whether a design template works, you need to personally ask your "God" (user) to test it. Maybe yours is Dubai's crew. (No kidding!) This is a recent case in our company. In short, your users ' needs are different from those of other sites.

-but don't we already know how the human brain interacts with information?

Yes, but I have to reiterate that the knowledge is broad and macroscopic. There is nothing absolute about it. Using a recent Harvard experiment, for example, in this experiment, the researchers designed a game that correctly guesses your age based on the rate at which you click the mouse: More information about this experiment can be referenced

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2313388/age-test-drive- dotty-online-quiz-reveals-old-really-based-reaction-time.html). I (the original author) also participated in, is really a pioneering experiment!

People of different ages, different physical conditions, different cultures or other aspects will have a completely different demand. That is why the use of large and general solutions can backfire.

　　What is a negative pattern?

The negative mode (Anti-pattern) is a design pattern which is obvious but inefficient or needs to be optimized in practice. You will see this approach in Web apps or Web sites, more specifically, in places where any user generates behavior, such as landing pages, entering information, or reading information.

　　How do I identify the negative mode?

As a web designer, it's easy to spot a noticeable problem in your design (for example, a drop down menu will be put away before you click on one of the items). However, design problems that exist in the negative model are more difficult to detect. Although a user who is focused on completing a task on the site will skip the problem, it is still a bit unpleasant.

To get these problems out of the way, you'd better turn on the network data Statistics tool. Google Analytics is a good choice because it's free and easy to install.

You need to look for some of the "Symptoms" of problems (possibly negative patterns) from the measured data, including:

　　Decrease in Page user traffic

There were many users who had been led to a certain page, but suddenly a large number of users disappeared, and you should take a closer look at what was wrong with the page. Ask yourself, does the user need an interactive behavior to do the next step? Do they not know how to get to the next step? is the entire page an animation? These questions need to be investigated on the spot to know. Document these issues to facilitate subsequent user research and analysis.

　　Aimless clicks

If users are scrambling around the entire page, they don't know what to click on.

　　Scroll up and down repeatedly

If the user keeps scrolling up and down the page, it proves they can't find what they want, or they don't know what they want.

　　Some of the common negative patterns

A usability problem does not necessarily equate to the crux of the negative pattern, but there are traces to follow. It is a pity that many of the negative patterns in the design are treated as bad ideas because of inefficient usability. Here are some examples of negative patterns:

1. Clickable elements that do not seem to have a click on the hint

(Translator Note: Why can't we tell if a button is clickable?) the color of the button is the same as the text on the page, is not set to blue, and is not processed like a button in other text chains. No bold and no underline. No icon or arrow to indicate, or any hint to provide clickable.

The issues included are:

1. Button is too small

2. Text Chain no visual distinction (blue is the best choice)

3. The button is too flat to tell the user: "Brother is actually a button!"

4. The absence of hover State may also cause problems, such as not using {cursor:pointer;} The label

2. Hover problem

Hiding information in the hover effect of the part (button or caption) is a regular interface is a very convenient way, but to ensure that the mouse left the hot zone, the information should not be hidden too fast. The user's response is not as fast as you might think. As a designer, imagine how unpleasant it would be to hover over and over again to make the information visible.

3. The context of the non-uniform

For example, there are three different types of links on a page. A guide to return to the home page, a user to take out of the site, and the third to open a window. This is too confusing for users.

4. No batch operations performed

In a complex list, if there are functions that need to be performed by the user, such as adding, deleting, or changing the state of the elements in the table, be sure to provide the bulk processing function! Processing one at a time absolutely results in a rather poor user experience.

5. A large amount of content filled with the first screen space

Research shows that users are actually more focused on reading the content after the first screen. But for some reason, the idea of stacking content as much as possible in the first screen still exists. So my advice is: use space rationally and separate content areas.

6. Bounce-Type navigation (Pogo stick navigation)

Bounce Navigation (Translator Note: Pogo stick literally means spring stilt, also known as "jumping mouse") means that in order to complete an operation, the user must go from the main navigation depth to one or two levels, and then back to the main navigation, from another column depth. "Bounce Navigation" is named by Jared Spool, a form of navigation that allows users to continue to drill down and back in the hierarchy, jumping up and down like jumping mice.

7. Clear all Error messages

The scenario of this pattern is when the user fills out a form and the system informs it that the information does not meet the requirements, and the site automatically empties all or part of the information that the user has entered and needs to be filled in again.

8. The wrong target page

is when a user completes a series of interactions, but is introduced to a different expected page. This pattern is often found in E-commerce sites: Users need to log in before making an online transaction, and when they log on, the user is not directed to a form page that fills out credit card information, but is taken to the homepage.

　　Homework

Check to see if there are any negative patterns or symptoms associated with the project you are currently working on. Find a friend or a partner who isn't involved in the project to check the site to see what happens. Do they feel uncomfortable somewhere on the site? Where the user experience is not smooth is often a precursor to a negative model.

The above example is only the tip of the iceberg! What other patterns have you found in your website?

Original author and Source:

Sarah Kahn,may 8th, 2013

http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/user-experience-articles/the-world-of-ux-anti-patterns/

(Weibo UDC original blog, reprint please indicate the source http://udc.weibo.com/)