Welcome to the November edition of ZooNews, from Montreal professional Web site design company Zoonini Web Services.

This month, let's revisit a very basic Web no-no that I see surprisingly often both on Web sites and in email messages, including company newsletters.

It's simply this: never underline anything on a Web page or in an email that is not a link. Not a headline, not some text you want to emphasize, nada, nothing, rien!

Now, what was your immediate reaction to the phrase "never underline anything" above? Did your hand instinctively reach for your mouse to click it? If you're anything like most Web users, you have been "trained" to assume that underlined text is clickable. When this convention is ignored, you are left clicking in vain, with no browser window opening as expected.

Unless you want your visitors to be frustrated and confused, reserve underlining only for links. What to use instead? Bold, large text or coloured text are all good choices. Italics are another option but since they sometimes tend to look jagged on screen, I don't recommend them for all but a word or two.

One of the jargony terms that folks in the Web world like to throw around is usability, meaning how easy or difficult it is to use or interact with a Web site. Wikipedia defines it as referring to "the elegance and clarity with which the interaction with a computer program or a web site is designed. "

A perfect example of poor usability was just described above... by underlining text that isn't a link, you thwart users' expectations, resulting in a frustrating and confusing user experience. On the other hand, a site with good usability is easy to navigate and intuitive in its design and structure. People can find what they're looking for quickly. It's clear what you as a user (aka visitor) are expected to do, and when you don't do what you were supposed to – say, enter the wrong type of information in a form – the error messages are friendly and clearly explain what went wrong and how get back to where you want to be. In other words, user errors are anticipated and dealt with in a graceful fashion. And of course, on a site with good usability, people don't get frustrated and go to your competitor's site instead!

Intrigued? Check out usability guru Jakob Nielsen's article Usability 101 to find out more.

Got a technology term you'd like demystified in ZooNews? Send it to questions@zoonini.com.

Our complete overhaul of Toronto corporate training company Beyond the Box is a remake of one of our own sites. The goal was to match the look-and-feel of the site to the company's printed presentation folder and brochure, and to pack in tons of freshly optimized copywriting by top-notch SEO (search-engine optimization) expert A.C. Riley Communications. The new site features randomized quotes on the homepage brimming with "creative insights" and impressive customer testimonials from big names like Bell Canada, Chubb Insurance, RBC, GlaxoSmithKline, and the Governments of Canada and Ontario.

A recent Statistics Canada report on Internet shopping revealed that in 2005 Canadians spent $7.9 billion on goods and services purchased through the Web, mostly travel services like hotel reservations and car rentals, along with books, magazines, software, clothing and music. That may seem like a lot of cash, until you realize it's just a small portion of the overall figure of $762 billion in consumer spending on personal goods and services for the year.

The report identifies a few issues that may be preventing some Canadians from shopping on the Web, including a lack of high-speed Internet and concern about credit-card fraud. How quickly these problems can be overcome remains to be seen... just ask my colleague who lives in a rural area, and still can't get high-speed Internet without paying an exorbitant amount for a satellite ISP hookup!

À la prochaine,

kp
aka Kathryn Presner