Usability specialist, Jack Krug sums up web usability in the title of his book, “Don’t Make Me Think”. That is the bottom line; do not make it hard for your site visitors to find what they are looking for. The easiest way to that is to ensure your web site conforms to some simple web standards.
Site visitors love consistency and will look to interact on your site in the same way that they interact with other websites. No matter how ingenious or creative you think your web site is, if it does not follow simple web design conventions you are bound to frustrate site visitors. Frustrated or confused visitors will bounce off to a new site.
Logos
Your logo should be on the left side of the header and usually for on the left (provided your target market reads left to right). Site visitors will use your logo to identify your company.
Make your Logo a link to your homepage. For what is worth, bigger is not necessarily better when it comes to Logos. Your logo should be clear and readable but it should not take up much valuable space on the webpage. For guidance, look at the size of the logo on major websites like amazon, facebook, and paypal.
Links
Change the color of your text links so they standout from other text.
Typically, you should underline links although more and more sites are only using the underline on mouse over. (As an aside, you should not underline anything that is not a link – it only confuses visitors into thinking your links are not working!)
Make sure visited links are different color. This is helps your site visitor identify which pages they have already visited.
Navigation
Keep your navigation consistent throughout the entire site and on every page.
Breadcrumb navigation should be at the top of the site.
