Computer and Web Articles

Is there a particular problem you run into over and over while using your computer? Chances are, you’re not alone.  Today we’ll learn how to fix a few common problems that many people run into everyday.  Let’s get started.

CHANGING FONT SIZES IN AOL

Web Browsers such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla, and Firefox make it easy for Internet users to increase and decrease the text size on most webpages.  Many AOL users, however, become frustrated when they happen upon a website with teeny-tiny, unreadable text (or, on the other end of the spectrum–gigantic text-though this tends to be less of a problem).   This is because AOL’s font size settings are often linked to the settings chosen for Internet Explorer.  How frustrating is that?!

Trying to figure out how to change a webpage’s text-size in AOL on your own can be downright tricky.  Worry not!  Here are the not-so-secret steps to making websites’ text more comfortable for you to read:

1. Are you in AOL right now? If so, exit AOL.
2. Open Internet Explorer (the big blue “e” icon on your desktop)
3. Look at the Menu Bar at the top of the Internet Explorer Window.  Choose View.
4. Now, choose Text Size.
5. Next, select your preferred text size.  Medium works for many people.  Large or larger is great if you have poor vision or a large screen resolution, though.
6. Close Internet Explorer.
7. Open AOL and your text should be much easier to read!

MOVIN’ AROUND LIKE LIGHTENING IN MICROSOFT WORD

Are you still using just your arrow keys to move around in your Microsoft Word documents?  If so it’s time to learn a couple new navigation tricks.

Let’s say you’re smack dab in the middle of a paragraph and you want to move to the beginning of that paragraph.  Don’t you dare tap your up and left arrow keys repeatedly!  Instead, simply hold down your Ctrl key in the bottom left of your keyboard and tap your Up Arrow key once.  Wallah!  (Bonus tip: Holding down Ctrl and tapping your Down Arrow key will move you to the beginning of the next paragraph.)

Let’s say your cursor is located at the end of a sentence, and you want to add a word near the beginning of the sentence.  Again, don’t move your mouse and don’t tap your left arrow key repeatedly.  This time, simply hold down your Ctrl key and tap your Left Arrow key to keep moving to the previous word in your sentence!  Much quicker, eh?  (Obvious bonus tip: Ctrl and your Right Arrow key will move you to the beginning of the next word on the right.)

WHAT WAS THAT AREA CODE?

Using Search Engines to decode where area codes are from can be tricky.  (Where WAS the unfamiliar number on my Caller ID from?)  Yahoo now makes this task a snap.

Simply head over to www.yahoo.com, type in the 3-digit area code you’re wondering about, and hit “Yahoo! Search.”  Your answer will appear immediately.  Cool.

Your website is gorgeous.  There’s a gorgeous photo of you on the homepage.  You can move from page to page within your site with ease-in fact, you could do it blindfolded with both hands tied behind your back.

Yet unless you have a small personal “diary” website, all these things matter not; what it all really comes down to is . . . how easily can your website visitors use the site?

Let’s dive into some basics of website usability today, shall we?

If your site’s visitors can’t use your website, they can’t do what you want them to do.  They can’t find information quickly. They can’t figure out the best manner in which to contact you.  They can’t purchase your products or, even worse, they can’t determine what it is that you actually do.

Here are a few tips you can follow to help your website visitors move around, utilize, and interact with your website more effectively.

1. Is it obvious what’s clickable? While you personally might feel that it’s glaringly  apparent that the flashing sunflower on your website is the Contact page button, many of your visitors will not. Don’t make your site visitors blunder about, waste time, and become frustrated by clicking this and that.  Make sure that it’s extremely obvious which items on your website are clickable and which items are nothing more than pretty pictures.
2. Is there too much visual noise? When you slap photo after photo and paragraph after paragraph of text onto your webpages, you’re simply increasing the number of items that are competing for your visitors’ attention.  Make sure to remove graphics and text that do not directly serve distinct purposes.  Get rid of that useless “Welcome to our website” paragraph.  Remove that 3^rd photo of Peak 1.  Let your page (and your visitors) breathe.
3. Can users tell where they are?  Because the Internet is a virtual space as opposed to a physical one, it’s not always easy to know where one’s located at any particular moment.  A click here, a link to a different page deep within a new site and . . . hmmm . . . are you lost?  To ensure users feel comfortable and know where they are within your website, provide descriptive page titles and headings (ex: About the XYZ Company) on all your site’s pages, not just the homepage.
4. Make your website’s text easy to skim.  Your website is not a print brochure.  Unless it’s an article, people tend not to sit and read on the web-they skim.  Guide your site’s visitors along and help them find information more quickly by cutting your site’s text by a substantial amount-try for 25%.  Once you’ve cut down the amount of text displayed, break it up into small, readable chunks with descriptive headings.  Your site users will thank you–trust me on this one!

Taking these small, simple steps toward great usability will not only make for happier website visitors, it will allow your visitors to do what you’d like them to (whether read, purchase, or interact) with far more ease.  For more information, check out the great book “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug.