I mentioned something earlier this week about doing a case study on design that works when it shouldn’t. And really, there are a lot of examples that I could use. Myspace for instance.
But something else really caught my attention this week that preceded attention on that post. If you were salivating about that for some reason, you should probably go fill up a glass of Orangina.
Doors!
You read right. This post is all about doors. I’m not crazy. Maybe a little. I’ll be taking a look at how doors relate to usability design. Again, not crazy, just keep reading.
Doors have much in common with the web as we’ve created it. Hell, I’d say they account for most of what we see on the web. Links! Links are the very fibers that connect the web. And that’s all second knowledge for most anyone reading this now.
Doors as an analogy to the web
In most respects, they are direct analogies to our real life doorways. They are entry and exit points in our daily routines. We leave our home through the front door and drive or take the bus to work.
There, we clock in on our time cards. The business is usually divided into appropriate sections. If we’re talking about an office building, you have sales, accounting, research and development, production, all in self-contained areas. Management is usually completely separate and you’re only admitted if you’re a manager yourself or by special permission.
In general, we like what we already know. It’s often stated in design cultures it’s often described as such:
There is no such thing as an original design,
all design has some inspiration from somewhere
It applies beyond web design or art as well. Easter is colored in pastels while Halloween is orange and black. Except for those creepy guys that dress up as big bunnies for Halloween. Back on topic, cellphones are still shaped like the original bell phones. And taxis always have and always will be yellow.
Now on to the doors (you thought I’d forgot about them)
The Special Needs Door
This is the door that not everyone can see. Not everyone that visits your site will have the same abilities. You might have blind, deaf, or color blind users. The doors above on the left are the real doors. On the right, is what someone that is red-green color blind would see.
It’s crucially important (especially if you know that you have special needs viewers), to make your website accessible to everyone.
If on your sign up page, you have three buttons, one each, red, green and yellow. And as a check to see if they’re human, tell them to click the yellow button, you’ve totally screwed them. In the color blind person’s case, they see three yellow buttons in different shades.
The Inaccessible Door
This is the door, that just plain can’t be reached. It might be way out of the way or even lead to know where. But in the end, it’s just plain unusable.
Don’t construct your site with navigation that is hard to utilize. A user should be able to easily find each of your pages without much work. Don’t disguise your navigation as part of an elaborate header if your catering to a viewership that won’t understand your intention.
Your user shouldn’t have to jump through hoops in order to navigation your site.
The Ornate Door
A lot like the inaccessible door, the ornate door looks gorgeous but can’t be used. Do you even see a handle on that door?
Your art piece is better left in your portfolio of work rather than smutting up my navigation. I don’t want to have to search through a painting to find where I’m going. Yes, I’m talking about all those shitty, confusing flash websites.
The Inconsistent Doors
These are those doors when you’re walking down a hallway and have to open the first door by pulling and the second by pushing. Or one bathroom in your house opens outward while the other opens inward.
Doors with the same purpose should be designed the same. And likewise, links should also. Make it easy on your user and don’t force them to learn how to do something two different ways.
Windowless Doors
Most doors, especially ones with high traffic, need windows. The main reason being that without one, you don’t know what’s on the other side. While you’re walking up to the door, someone could be on the other side pushing it open into you.
I’ve had it happen way to many times at restaurants that fail to realize this.
Your user should have full indication of where links are leading them. If they’re going offsite, have an icon next to the link to indicate thus.