The Ease of Use Group provides Web
guidelines, and we also offer UI Design Principles. You may find it
useful to develop your own set of conventions based on these
guidelines. For example, IBM has developed a set of guidelines and
conventions for use in building our own sites, available to IBM
employees at w3.ibm.com/standards.
How should these guidelines be used?
We developed these guidelines by studying a cross-section of users and
sites, but there may be contexts that we did not examine. If you learn
from your user feedback that a different solution works better in your
situation than one we offer here, then of course you should do what
works best in your situation. To provide the best Web solutions,
always use these guidelines in conjunction with a user-centered design
process.
Note also that end users' priorities
may at times conflict with those of designers, developers, or owners.
In such cases, these guidelines will advocate for the users' best
interests. The authors acknowledge that, in practice, factors other
than the ease of use enter into design decisions. Always be mindful,
nevertheless, of the potential impact of your decisions on your users.
What are these guidelines based on?
These guidelines stem from four sources: from our experience using the
User-Centered Design (UCD) process to create the IBM site; from user
studies over the past few years of the different sections of IBM site,
including Shop IBM and this Ease of Use site; from studies of users
interacting with non-IBM sites, such as sites that sell books, videos,
clothing, and computer products; and from the published research of
experts in the field.
How are these guidelines organized?
These guidelines are organized according to a process for developing
Web sites. The phases of this process are Planning, Design,
Production, and Maintenance. We also offer a special section that
focuses specifically on the topic of e-commerce.
How can I print this information?
A "Print: Web Guidelines" button is provided at the bottom of each
page. This button links to a single page that contains all the
information in the Web Guidelines section. You can then use your
browser to print all the information at one time