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16. Design Conventions
from:Often people who are new to web design think that they shouldn't pay attention to any of the existing design conventions. They think that they're going to design a website the way they think one should work. This isn’t being innovative this is being arrogant and not respecting the design conventions which have been in use since years. If there were only a few thousands of websites in the world, you wouldn't care for design conventions but when you have millions of websites you must know that even your most loyal visitors are likely to spend their time at other websites. And if your website doesn't work similarly to the others, then they're going to find your website hard to use and would eventually stop using your website.
When people visit your website, do you really want them to learn how to use or navigate at your website before they can actually start using the features of your website? The answer is of course not. The interface, the design conventions should all be similar.
Design Conventions-The web's design conventions are simple, efficient and so effective that you probably don't realize they're there most of the time. Here are some examples:
Your logo should be a link to your homepage.
The links on your navigation bar should all be internal links.
Clicking a small picture will display a bigger version.
Links go to HTML documents unless they're clearly marked as a movie, PDF, etc.
Things are bought by adding them to a 'cart' and then going through a 'checkout'.
Identity checks are done with a username and password system.
People feel annoyed when these conventions are not followed. They might even get confused. If you put an external link on your navigation bar, for example, then people could think it's part of your website – that creates all sorts of issues, since you have no control over external content.
The only time you should break the design conventions is when your website is unique enough from others that it will be worth for people to learn the new conventions. Don't fool yourself by thinking you're more important than you really are. Know your website's limits and make it work as much like other websites as you possibly can.
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