Noticing the little big details in your design

I’m very detail-oriented, as cliché and résumé-buzzwordy as it sounds. For some reason, I tend to notice the smallest things and the slightest changes, much to the chagrin of the girlfriend (she hates how picky I am.) Someone needs to tell her that being a picky designer is a good thing!

Little Big Details is a collection I’ve thought of curating for years but never did, and naturally, someone takes action and beats me to it. All the more reason to stop putting things off and to start acting on your brilliant ideas, right?

The site highlights the lovely little usability morsels UX / UI designers build into their interfaces.

Why should you, the small business owner, care?

Usability, to non-designers, is a boring topic. Like really, who gives a shit, right?

Well, you should give a shit, even if you don’t know the first thing about design or the subject of site usability. Know why? Because your customers care. They may not know they care, but they do.

• When they have a hard time navigating through your site
• When they can’t find the information they are looking for
• When the information they do find is haphazardly structured
• When they can’t locate the BUY button on your sales page

All of this leads to frustration for your customer, and will result in them hitting that little close button at the top of their browser window. Worse yet, they will go directly to your competition and see if they have better luck finding the information there.

So, now you know why you should care.

What to do next

Take a look at your own site. View it from your customer’s perspective. Pretend you exchanged eyeballs and this is the first time ever browsing your own site. Think about why your customer would ever go to your site in the first place.

What do you see?

• How easy is it to find the information you’re looking for?
• Is it easy to hop from section to section?
• Is there a natural flow of information, in the way you expect?
• Pretend you want to buy, how easy is it to purchase your goods?
• Can you find the BUY button easily, or do you have to dig around for it?

Dumb it down

There are a lot of things that go into a good user experience. It takes a trained eye to notice the subtlest inconsistencies, but only a little practice to identify the most obvious, glaring ones. Try viewing your site with a fresh pair of eyes, and check if your site is as dumb as possible. That doesn’t mean your customer is dumb, but you don’t want he or she to have to work too hard to get the information they need. You want your site to be fool-proof.

Any questions? I’m just an email away.

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