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

JEFF JOHNSON UI WIZARDS, INC.

MORGAN KAUFMANN PUBLISHERS AN IMPRINT OF ELSEVIER SCIENCE

AMSTERDAM BOSTON LONDON NEW YORK OXFORD PARIS SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO SINGAPORE SYDNEY TOKYO

Senior Editor: Diane D. Cerra

Senior Developmental Editor: Belinda Breyer

Publishing Services Manager: Edward Wade, Simon Crump

Editorial Coordinator: Mona Buehler

Project Manager: Howard Severson, Kevin Sullivan

Cover Design: Ross Carron Design

Text Design: Chen Design Associates

Composition: Graphic World, Inc.

Copyeditor: Graphic World Publishing Services

Proofreader: Graphic World Publishing Services

Indexer: Richard Shrout

Interior Printer: Quebecor World

Cover Printer: Phoenix Color

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks or registered trademarks. In all instances in which Morgan Kaufmann Publishers is aware of a claim, the product names appear in initial capital or all capital letters . Readers, however, should contact the appropriate companies for more complete information regarding trademarks and registration.

340 Pine Street, Sixth Floor San Francisco, CA 94104-3205 http://www.mkp.com

Copyright 2003 by Elsevier Science (USA).

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

07 06 05 04 03 5 4 3 2 1

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means ”electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise ”without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2002115475

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Johnson is President and Principal Consultant for UI Wizards, Inc., a product usability consulting firm based in San Francisco. He founded UI Wizards in 1996. Client companies of UI Wizards have included Advance Reality, Aspect Technologies, AT&T, Informix, InfoSpace, InXight, Oracle, Optical Microwave Networks, Inc., RightPoint Software, Silicon Graphics, Studio Archetype, Sun Microsystems, Tibco Financial Technologies, and Vitria. Prior to founding UI Wizards, Jeff worked as a user -interface designer and implementer, manager, usability tester, and researcher at Cromemco, Xerox, US West, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun Microsystems. He is the author of GUI Bloopers: Don'ts and Do's for Software Developers and Web Designers and has published numerous articles and book chapters on a variety of topics in human-computer interaction and technology policy (for details see his website at www.uiwizards.com). Jeff co-chaired the first U.S. conference on participatory design of computer systems: PDC'90. He has a B.A. degree from Yale University and a Ph.D. from Stanford University, both in experimental psychology, with additional studies in computer science.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost, I thank Belinda Breyer, Senior Developmental Editor at Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, who served both as my boss, setting the schedule and cracking the whip when necessary, and as my helper, chasing down references, finding suitable cartoons, devising clever names for bloopers, and numbering figures. The book would have been both much later and lower in quality without her oversight, advice, and help.

Others at Morgan Kaufmann who were instrumental in getting this book project started or finished were: Diane Cerra, Howard Severson, and Edward Wade. I thank them. I also thank Chen Design Associates, Graphic World Publishing Services, and Ross Carron Design for their parts in turning my manuscript into a high quality book.

This book benefited enormously from examples of bloopers contributed by people too numerous to list here. You know who you are. It also benefited from comments on GUI Bloopers ”this book's predecessor ”submitted by readers at GUI-bloopers.com and online bookstores. The book also was greatly improved by the comments and suggestions of several reviewers and usability testers: Richard Anderson, Jim Bartram, Cathy de Heer, Meghan Ede, Darren Gergle, Ryan Hanau, Austin Henderson, Ellen Isaacs, Carolyn Jarrett, Robin Kinkead, Steve Krug, Jim Miller, Stu Rohrer, Gitta Salomon, and Howard Tamler. Thanks are due to Jakob Nielsen for providing information on Web trends, to Kevin Mullet for advice on graphic design issues, and to Steve Krug for advice on designing the book's figures and for writing the Foreword.

I thank several dear friends for providing supportive friendship during this long project: Chuck Clanton, Robin Jeffries, Tom McCalmont, Jane Rice, and Kathy Thompson. Finally, I thank my wife and companion, Karen Ande, for being unconditionally supportive.