Use Easy to Remember Functions for Great Website Usability

Keeping a website simple does have it’s benefits. Besides being easier to figure out, it’s often easier to remember how you figured it out the first time. Unfortunately, many websites insist on torturing their users, and this is something even the big boys do. Using Facebook as an example, see how memory failure kicks in, and how it could easily be avoided.

Not Easy to Remember, Not Easy to Use

Over the holiday, my father-in-law asked me how to use Facebook. I’m not a big user, but I post the occasional comment or picture. How hard could it be to explain how to use Facebook? It turns out, pretty hard, and even Facebook hides the help link in the far bottom right in the footer. I guess they are afraid of trying to explain it as well.

Looking at the Facebook menu when logged in, and logically breaking it down, I can only perceive this as menu stuffing. The first item in the menu is the Facebook logo, and that leads to your feed for everything you follow. That makes sense.

The next item is the Home page link, and that does the exact same thing, I think. I say “I think” because earlier today I saw discrepancies (between it and the Logo link), and now I do not. Either way, Facebook has obviously not taken the well known advice from Jakob Nielsen that you should not link to the home page from the home page. If Facebook insists on keeping the text “Home” on the menu, it should highlight it in some way so the user knows they are there. This is the way I handle it here on BWI.

Then, clicking on the Profile link one would imagine this is where you set up your profile. You can do some editing here, but it is essentially your Wall. Kicking in some extra confusion, Facebook also includes a link to the same page in the menu using your name as the anchor text. This link does the exact same thing as the profile link. I’m wondering, shouldn’t a link titled Profile lead to a page specifically designed for editing your profile, and why does it link to the same page as my name link?

So in a menu with six items listed only four are really needed. A new user trying to remember what link to use to post an updated may wonder if they should click on their name, or if they should click on their profile. It’s hard to remember. Either one work, but that is not the point.

The point is that the new user has been given what would  appear to be an extra feature to remember, when in fact it does something another menu item does already. Confusing, hard to remember, and simply ignores usability.

Squeezing Your Site to Its Core

So how could Facebook make their menu simpler, and their site easier to remember how to use? Palm seemed to figure it out. For my phone I use a Palm Treo. They have a handy little application for Facebook, and they managed to squeeze Facebook down to its core. It’s easy to use, and easy to understand.

The application that Palm Inc. made for Facebook has just four menu items, and is very simple to use. With the application you can upload photos, see and post status messages, pull up contact information from your friends, and go to your inbox. Facebook simplified this way, is super easy to use, to the point that memorizing how to do something on the site is not even required. Facebook is almost easier to use on my phone, than on my PC.

Additionally, when online we often repeat certain functions. An example of this on Facebook would be adding a new picture. To make sure it’s a user friendly task it should be easy to find, and a user should be able to remember how to do the task after just a couple of sessions at most. Do you remember how to do a Google search? You probably did the first time you tried it.

This is all putting the old sayings like “Less is more” or “Keep it simple” rock solid statements for web design. Key methods to keeping your navigation simple? Brainstorming use cases, card sorting, and getting more than one person involved in the design process.