Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Simplicity refers to keeping navigation and usability simple and organized so
that no mistakes can be made when traveling throughout the Web portfolio.
Confusion in the Web portfolio cannot be tolerated by the user. He or she will
not stand for not getting what they want, which is content. If the need for content
discovery is not met, the connection and the communication have failed. The
scary part is that we may never know if the user has had a bad experience. Later
on in this topic, we talk more deeply about usability from the viewpoint of Jakob
Nielsen, the usability guru of the Web. We will also examine usability testing for
our own Web portfolios to see how the user might feel when they hit our URL.
One thing that we want to keep in the forefront of our navigation and usability
design is that users need to get to where they're going through navigation as
simply as possible. This is nonnegotiable. Therefore, creating an easy to
navigate, usable site is more difficult and then dumping loads of unorganized
materials on the user.
Let us examine the components that help insure usability and good design in the
Web portfolio. The guidelines in the next sections can help you develop an
organized structure that will help you in the rest of the Web portfolio develop-
ment steps. Remember, the development of the Web portfolio is an individual,
subjective experience that provides a structured narrative in Web form.
Structure
Kristoff and Satran state: “As an information designer, you are a gatekeeper.
Even though users make their own choices, it's up to you what choices they
have; what they see first, where they can go, and what they don't see at all”
(1995, p. 31). The idea of gate keeping presents an interesting metaphor when
we talk about Web portfolio design. As the author of the Web portfolio and as
an information designer in the process we are gatekeepers to our own cyber
appearance, credentials list, and identity. More importantly, however, we are
gatekeepers to effective communication with the user. We must understand the
responsibility we have to be conduits in getting the user to learn about us and
to persuade the user to recognize our skills and abilities. We are gatekeepers
to success with the user.
