Web Page Design Elements: Logo & Search
Just as North is at the top of most maps, web site design has developed some fundamental ‘conventions’ that the majority of internet users have come to expect.
As Vincent Flanders points out (to which I agree), you can throw all of the upcoming concepts out when developing: Personal, Band, Movie or Web Site Design company sites.
These are suggestions from the book, Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed.
- The majority of users look for the logo in the upper left corner.
- A logo should be a link back to the home page (except when on the home page).
- The ‘Search’ feature should be in the upper right or upper left.
- The ‘Search’ feature should be in a box.
- The most used labels on search buttons are: Search and Go.
- Most search boxes are white.
- User friendly search boxes are around 30 characters wide.
I appreciate the 2-sides of the debate between graphic (art)ists and usability ‘experts’. But, when it comes to these ‘recommendations’, I’d say the usability folks are right on.
April 28th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
I have a couple disagreements here, both fairly minor.
I believe the logo should be clickable even on the home page. I’ve seen people use this link to refresh the page. In addition to that, people sometimes don’t realize they are currently on the home page. If they try to click on the logo to get there and find that it’s not clickable, they blame you. If they click on it and realize they are where they started, they realize they were on the home page.
I’ve also found that it’s best to have search below the baseline of the site logo, with the exception of when primary navigation shares that baseline.
April 29th, 2006 at 10:08 am
Great point on the user response / reaction to the clickable logo on home page. I’m wavy gravy on that. I have it clickable on this site, but that’s probably just lazy. On customer sites, I mostly hold my stance on the clickable logo. The more streadfast rule (for me) of home page to home page clickability it to not have a clickable ‘HOME’ link in the navigation menu on the home page. That’s redundant and potentially confusing.
Search box is a toss up. Again, I agree that it seems to make better sense to have it by the logo. The focal point. Ultimately, I would sacrifice it to the left if design dictated that.