Web Bloopers: 60 Common Web Design Mistakes, and How to Avoid Them (Interactive Technologies)

U

UBid.com

email form page, 47, 49

noneditable text, 149, 150

stealth duplicate links, 94

UCLA.edu. See University of California at Los Angeles website

underlined book titles, 228

underlined non-link text, 226-228

underlining textual links, 222

UNEX.UCLA.edu. See University of California at Los Angeles website

Unfinished Content blooper, 37, 39-42

unfollowed links, distinguishing from already-followed, 266

Unhelpful Descriptions blooper, 24-28

"unique" search controls, 163-164

unique session IDs

assigned to users by cookies, 53

in the stuffed URL approach, 54

United Airlines' website

avoiding multiple competing navigation schemes, 92

conflicting information between its home page and another page, 28, 29

confusing multiline links, 234

different error conditions generating confusing messages, 204, 205, 206

distracting links to useless information, 37, 38

not accepting data in familiar formats, 125

spurious search results, 179

towns lacking major commercial airports accepted by, 71-72

travel-time menus from, 64, 65

universal logins, designing, 52

University of California at Los Angeles website

internal website for approving administrative requests , 77-78

welcome screen presenting incomplete options, 62, 64

University of California's Cal Performances home page, excessive duplication on, 102

University of Florida website, text-only duplicate links, 101

University of Houston's Clear Lake campus website, text that looks editable, 149, 150

unneeded data, requiring, 52, 55-57

Unobtrusive Error Messages blooper, 260-265

unusual search controls, 163-164

UPAssoc.org. See Usability Professionals Association website

UPPER CASE, 217

U.S. House of Representatives website, requiring both a zip code and a state, 52, 55

U.S. Internal Revenue Service website, underlining of text labels, 232, 233

U.S. National Academies website, sloppy writing on, 219

U.S. Postal Service's website

category scheme of, 20-21, 22

typing the state abbreviation required, 122-123

usability

developing functionality and infrastructure without concern for, 283

focus on, 245

focusing on bloopers affecting , 4

sacrificing for the sake of better graphic appearance, 224

testing websites for, 37

of the Web, 1, 3-4

usability bloopers. See bloopers

Usability Professionals Association website

making "none" an explicit and default radiobutton value, 134

underlined headings, 228

usability testing. See also testing

determining if choices are meaningful, 61

for this book, 302-303

validating design decisions, 283

of websites, 37

Uselt.com, 196

useless information, distracting links to, 37, 38

USER AGENT string, examining, 63

user interface

clickability of screen components on, 225

slapping on at the end, 283

text making up the bulk of, 195

using GUI toolkit terms for parts of, 200-201

user-interface designers

responsibilities of, 283

role of, 7

user-interface toolkits

allowing controls to be set to "noneditable", 149

treatment of checkboxes and radiobuttons , 148

users

adjusting font size , 253

allowing to opt into information sharing, 138

allowing to specify the search order, 185, 186

asking to identify their browser, 59-60, 61, 63

attracting attention to error messages, 264-265

designing Websites from the point of view of, 207

dumping at a generic page, 104, 105

dumping at another websites home page, 103-104

helping to enter data, 123, 124

maintaining login status for, 52

not distracting, 37

older than developers, 246-247

organizing websites and Web applications according to the needs of, 87

presenting meaningless options to, 58

referring to site visitors as, 207

resizing fonts, 249

selecting defaults specifically for, 138

testing text on, 206

users' data, methods for propagating throughout a site, 53-54

users don't know type of pointless choice, 58

USPS.gov. See U.S. Postal Service's website