Website Usability Guidelines

Follow these usability recommendations:

Interior Web Page Layout - Inside web pages are the pages where buying decisions are made and questions are answered. Because users shop many websites they have accumulated a generic mental model of the way interior web pages are suppose to work and look. The overall key is to use the same conventions that most popular website use.
Avoid cluttered web pages. Clutter is when excess items on a page lead to a degradation of performance when trying to find certain products or information. If your page is cluttered the user will move on to your competitor's website.
Place product information at top center of page. Users generally look at the top center of a page first, then look left, then look right, and finally begin moving down the page. Place product, features/benefits, price and shopping cart link in the top center page position. Do not make the user scroll down the page to find the product or service price and how to buy.
Structure for easy product comparison. If you must compare products use a table that clearly compares the features of each product. The user must be able to quickly scan and compare data. Color should be used to separate columns.

Use moderate white space. Density is the percentage of the screen filled with text and graphics. Studies show that higher density is related to faster scanning and comprehension. Too much separation of items on a web page may require user to scroll unnecessarily.
Use appropriate line lengths. If reading speed is most important, use line length (75-100 characters per line). If acceptance of the web site is most important, use shorter line length 50 characters per line.
Set appropriate page length for product pages. Try to keep product pages to a maximum of two page folds. Pages are scanned by the user and should be easy to read and simple to perform buying function. If necessary, you can use special pop-up pages to define features, special instructions, and product options.
Use a fluid layout. Use a fluid layout that automatically adjusts the page size to monitor resolution settings that are 1024 x 768 pixels or higher. When web page layouts are fixed to either to the left or centered, much of the available screen space is not used. Take advantage of as much screen space as possible. This is valuable screen real estate.
Avoid scroll stoppers. Users have been found not to continue to the bottom of the page because they found a group of very small fonts text, which is usually found at the bottom of the page. Other factors which may be scroll stoppers are change of background colors and horizontal lines.