50 Tips To A User Friendly Website

1. Clicking on the logo should take you to the home page;
2. Your logo/site title should be positioned in the top left of the page;
3. Duplicate your main navigational links in the page footer with links to additional, but less prominent pages;
4. Keep your navigation positioning consistent from page to page;
5. Don’t open links in a new tab/window, except PDF’s and embedded documents;
6. Highlight your current location in your navigation bar;
7. Use reasonable sized fonts (12px or larger);
8. Make sure font sizes are flexible (Use em’s or %, not px);
9. Sans-serif fonts are easier to read at small sizes;
10. Serif fonts are easier to read at large sizes;
11. Center your layout on the screen;
12. Use a page width appropriate for your audience (Older people use lower resolutions, tech saavy people use higher resolutions);
13. Use whitespace to logically group related items on the page;
14. Use font sizes, colors and styles to prioritize content;
15. Use 1.4 or 1.5em line height;
16. Use line lengths of 45 – 60 characters, the same as a paperback book;
17. Link to related content within the context of your page content;
18. Make sure your links change color/style when visited;
19. Always underline links, except some navigational cases;
20. Do not make important parts of the website look like an advertisement;
21. Use pull quotes to highlight important content in a lengthy article;
22. Text should be concise and scannable;
23. Use dark gray text instead of black text on a white background;
24. Break long pages into multiple pages;
25. Do not use all uppercase words, word shape helps word recognition;
26. Divide text into sections and use sub headlines to make content more easily scanned;
27. Keep a consistent layout, colors and typography throughout the whole site;
28. Print friendly automatically with print stylesheets;
29. Use buttons to submit forms (Some images which look like buttons are ok);
30. Don’t disguise or over-style inputs;
31. Don’t redesign standard UI elements, like scrollbars (this means you, flash people!);
32. Use breadcrumb navigation for hierarchical content;
33. Search results page should reiterate the phrase you searched for;
34. Do call your homepage “home” – not “welcome,” “front page,” “your company name” or anything else;
35. Use short and easy to read URL’s;
36. Give links to other content on your site related to their current page;
37. Optimize images for fast downloading;
38. Publish new content regularly, don’t “set it and forget it;”
39. Test in all browsers and OS’s, and different versions – IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera and Chrome;
40. Listen to your users and let them dictate changes (user centered design);
41. Avoid using jargon in page copy unless absolutely necessary;
42. Keep forms short, only ask for what you absolutely need;
43. Encourage conversation around your content. Comments, forums, etc…;
44. Include a text only sitemap;
45. Use the title attribute on links to add more context;
46. Never use “click here” as the text on a link;
47. Write in a inverted pyramid style;
48. Create friendly 404 pages which help people find content;
49. Create incentive to come back later;
50. Connect information via hyperlinks, don’t force navigational channels;

Thanks to Designing Interactive for the info.

 

thanks for sharing information

 

Great tips! This is very true. Really, it does set me off a bit when websites *don't* do this stuff, and makes it much more difficult to use.
All websites should implement these tips.