Guidelines for Interactivity
When adding interactivity to your website, there are a number of simple rules to follow. See how many you can discover on your own from our internal bad page, and then read the following five guidelines for interactivity:
- Interactivity is part of your website: Do not compartmentalize your interactive sections. They should be as much a part of your site as regular pages. Furthermore, consistency and style still apply.
- Include only a modicum of interactivity: Enormous amounts of buttons, Flash animations, links, games, and other applets can overwhelm and confuse visitors to your website.
- Use appropriate interactivity: "If in doubt, take it out." For instance, a website about elephants should not display the weather in Mexico City; there is no reason, and it will not add anything to the content.
- Stay simple: Make all your applets and pages require as little clicks as possible. This way, there will be less work for the user. Also, do not change anything that people are used to, such as the mouse pointer.
- Be logical: Make things the way they "should be." There is no good reason to be unnatural, as this will require a more extensive help section. The most prominent example of this concept is in navigation, where illogical interfaces can lead to very lost visitors.
