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Usability in web forms – Tab order
Many internet users are used to quickly navigating between different text fields like “Username”, “Password” and “Comment” fields by using the “Tab” key (located above Caps Lock). Being one of them I have noticed several times that some web forms have pretty unusable tab orders – the field focus shifts in unexpected places, leading to mistakes and confusion.
Examples:
- If instead of the password field search box will be activated. The user doesn’t notice this, types the password, it gets visible and someone behind (especially in a public place) might see it.
You probably won’t get sued, but the user experience will be totally ruined and this person might never come back to your site again.
- Again, the input focus is shifted through the tab key, but it ends up in the wrong field. Best case scenario: user sees the mistake and corrects it. Worst case scenario: the form with misplaced information gets filled out and submitted.
Now most of the times the tab order doesn’t have usability problems by default. But sometimes the layout isn’t the same in the code as it is visually and the field order gets mixed up.
To correct this problem you only have to use “tabindex=”. For example:
<form>
Username:
<input type=”text” name=”field1″ tabindex=1 />
Password:
<input type=”text” name=”field2″ tabindex=2 />
</form>
Can you remember any usability mistakes done with wrong tab orders?
Google to put Banner Ads on Google.com
Google has confirmed that they are planning to put banner ads on Google.com. Until now Google has allowed banner ads only on its ad publishing platform Adsense. In their usual style of blending ads with content, Google is going to allow banner ads only in Image Search.
By displaying banner ads on Image Search Google is hoping to earn additional 1-2 billion dollars, maybe even 3-4 billion. They have previously tested text ads in Image Search, but because they drove people away, Google dropped the idea.
Display ads will probably work better with image searches because they seem more natural to people looking for pictures.
So… If you thought banner advertising was dead, you might want to rethink that.
Web Awards 2008? No thanks!
If this “gorgeous” website belongs to an association that organizes the Web Awards 2008 and it costs 195 US$ per entry, then forget it. Even if it was for free… I wouldn’t waste my time filling out the application. It’s just insulting…
I have seen many ugly websites in my life and while this isn’t in the top ten I still wouldn’t let those guys judge my website nor organize a panel of judges to do this.
A little tip: If your website looks worse than this default WordPress template then you better think about hiring a new designer.
Some website designs I like
Here are a few website designs that I like. Yes, some of them are my competitors, but I’m not afraid to praise and promote (from time to time) my competition… if they do a good job of course.
EMOTIONS by Mike – Clean, beautiful and the legs catch your attention.
book Olivier Danchin – Although as an search engine optimizer I non-flash websites… I love strange creatures and minimalistic designs.
Ton Yoo – Online Showcase – Beautiful design, simple navigation… what else do you want?
ColourMod – This website design uses many Web 2.0 bells and whistles. Maybe too many… but you can’t hate dark designs with reflections, can you?
Obu Web Technologies – Black, grey and red – my favorite color combination. Other aspects of the design are of course beautiful too. Also click on “You only have to do 3 things right”… just my point.
There you have it… I mean them. I’ll probably make this into a series of posts, so expect more.
When price doesn’t reflect the quality of service
Price doesn’t reflect quality of the service, as you can read hear about an SEO who takes 350$ an hour just for stuffing the keywords. Okay… He probably did more than that, but still, the company is paying him almost 1/50 of their revenue, wouldn’t you expect much, much more?
It’s just unbelievable how many rip-off search engine optimizers there are in the world. I have seen so many companies that offer “SEO services”, meaning they stuff the meta keywords on all of the pages with the same list of words that aren’t very related to the services of the company. The rates are not as high as the above example, but for this work they should pay the client. The problem with Search Engine Optimization is that clients don’t know anything about it’s just hard to check whether they did anything at all.
Many SEO companies specialize on just delivering the good news. They don’t do almost any optimization, any link building… They maybe do something on a few pages. But the key of their “job” is to present pretty graphs and some kind of reports, that actually don’t say anything. And the clients won’t ask what do those numbers mean just in fear of appearing stupid. And if the clients do ask something, those so called SEO’s will either make them look stupid or give them another piece of useless information.
Some techniques unethical optimizers use what a “great job they did”:
- Paid search engine listings. Many clients just don’t know that results on the right hand are ads. So the unethical SEO’s pay for those results, show them to the client and get paid. After this they drop the ad and the client has been ripped of. This scam works less and less, because more and more companies are aware of Adwords.
- Pretty graphs with selective or fake info. Some SEO companies just show the good news (increased rankings for unimportant keywords) while leaving out the bad news (decreased rankings on keywords that really matter). Some just totally fabricate every piece of information.
- The famous “You rank #1 for your name!”. This is the oldest trick there is. If someone is looking for your company’s website, they will find it, probably even if it isn’t optimized at all. Remember, it’s important to rank for keywords that are related to your products and services, not your company name.
Some clients will sense something fishy, but those are rare cases and they can’t know for sure. But I guess this problem isn’t only in this industry. It’s the same with website design, programming and doesn’t stop with the online world. The only way you can protect yourself is by doing the homework!
Usability in web forms – Tab order
Many internet users are used to quickly navigating between different text fields like “Username”, “Password” and “Comment” fields by using the “Tab” key (located above Caps Lock). Being one of them I have noticed several times that some web forms have pretty unusable tab orders – the field focus shifts in unexpected places, leading to mistakes and confusion.
Examples:
- If instead of the password field search box will be activated. The user doesn’t notice this, types the password, it gets visible and someone behind (especially in a public place) might see it.
You probably won’t get sued, but the user experience will be totally ruined and this person might never come back to your site again. - Again, the input focus is shifted through the tab key, but it ends up in the wrong field. Best case scenario: user sees the mistake and corrects it. Worst case scenario: the form with misplaced information gets filled out and submitted.
Now most of the times the tab order doesn’t have usability problems by default. But sometimes the layout isn’t the same in the code as it is visually and the field order gets mixed up.
To correct this problem you only have to use “tabindex=”. For example:
<form>
Username:
<input type=”text” name=”field1″ tabindex=1 />
Password:
<input type=”text” name=”field2″ tabindex=2 />
</form>
Can you remember any usability mistakes done with wrong tab orders?
Google to put Banner Ads on Google.com
Google has confirmed that they are planning to put banner ads on Google.com. Until now Google has allowed banner ads only on its ad publishing platform Adsense. In their usual style of blending ads with content, Google is going to allow banner ads only in Image Search.
By displaying banner ads on Image Search Google is hoping to earn additional 1-2 billion dollars, maybe even 3-4 billion. They have previously tested text ads in Image Search, but because they drove people away, Google dropped the idea.
Display ads will probably work better with image searches because they seem more natural to people looking for pictures.
So… If you thought banner advertising was dead, you might want to rethink that.
Web Awards 2008? No thanks!
If this “gorgeous” website belongs to an association that organizes the Web Awards 2008 and it costs 195 US$ per entry, then forget it. Even if it was for free… I wouldn’t waste my time filling out the application. It’s just insulting…
I have seen many ugly websites in my life and while this isn’t in the top ten I still wouldn’t let those guys judge my website nor organize a panel of judges to do this.
A little tip: If your website looks worse than this default WordPress template then you better think about hiring a new designer.
Some website designs I like
Here are a few website designs that I like. Yes, some of them are my competitors, but I’m not afraid to praise and promote (from time to time) my competition… if they do a good job of course.
EMOTIONS by Mike – Clean, beautiful and the legs catch your attention.
book Olivier Danchin – Although as an search engine optimizer I non-flash websites… I love strange creatures and minimalistic designs.
Ton Yoo – Online Showcase – Beautiful design, simple navigation… what else do you want?
ColourMod – This website design uses many Web 2.0 bells and whistles. Maybe too many… but you can’t hate dark designs with reflections, can you?
Obu Web Technologies – Black, grey and red – my favorite color combination. Other aspects of the design are of course beautiful too. Also click on “You only have to do 3 things right”… just my point.
There you have it… I mean them. I’ll probably make this into a series of posts, so expect more.
When price doesn’t reflect the quality of service
Price doesn’t reflect quality of the service, as you can read hear about an SEO who takes 350$ an hour just for stuffing the keywords. Okay… He probably did more than that, but still, the company is paying him almost 1/50 of their revenue, wouldn’t you expect much, much more?
It’s just unbelievable how many rip-off search engine optimizers there are in the world. I have seen so many companies that offer “SEO services”, meaning they stuff the meta keywords on all of the pages with the same list of words that aren’t very related to the services of the company. The rates are not as high as the above example, but for this work they should pay the client. The problem with Search Engine Optimization is that clients don’t know anything about it’s just hard to check whether they did anything at all.
Many SEO companies specialize on just delivering the good news. They don’t do almost any optimization, any link building… They maybe do something on a few pages. But the key of their “job” is to present pretty graphs and some kind of reports, that actually don’t say anything. And the clients won’t ask what do those numbers mean just in fear of appearing stupid. And if the clients do ask something, those so called SEO’s will either make them look stupid or give them another piece of useless information.
Some techniques unethical optimizers use what a “great job they did”:
- Paid search engine listings. Many clients just don’t know that results on the right hand are ads. So the unethical SEO’s pay for those results, show them to the client and get paid. After this they drop the ad and the client has been ripped of. This scam works less and less, because more and more companies are aware of Adwords.
- Pretty graphs with selective or fake info. Some SEO companies just show the good news (increased rankings for unimportant keywords) while leaving out the bad news (decreased rankings on keywords that really matter). Some just totally fabricate every piece of information.
- The famous “You rank #1 for your name!”. This is the oldest trick there is. If someone is looking for your company’s website, they will find it, probably even if it isn’t optimized at all. Remember, it’s important to rank for keywords that are related to your products and services, not your company name.
Some clients will sense something fishy, but those are rare cases and they can’t know for sure. But I guess this problem isn’t only in this industry. It’s the same with website design, programming and doesn’t stop with the online world. The only way you can protect yourself is by doing the homework!