Websites should be designed to allow focus

There are normally a lot of stakeholders who's involved in deciding what should go in a website. These stakeholders will have their own incentives and goals, which will cause a lot of clutter in a website. Even though Websites should be designed for scanning, there are other parts of a website where the priority should be helping users complete their tasks. For example, when a user is trying to complete a checkout in an e-commerce website, they have made a decision on what they'd like to do. In this situation, scanning is no longer the mode of their thinking, and we should design the web pages in a way that reduce distraction.

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References

Krug, Don’t make me think (p. 88).

Too many cooks. Because the Home page is so important, it's the one page that everybody (event the CEO) has an opinion about.

Backlinks

• Web usability is achieved by designing for the intended attention types
  • Once users have found what they are looking for, they will usually be required to spend an effort, like filling a form, for example. In this scenario, users will be using the analytical attention type, therefore the web pages should help the users focus (Websites should be designed to allow focus).
• Persistent web navigation may cause distraction
  • Even though Web navigation should be persistent and consistent, web navigation can also be a distraction, especially when users have switched the way they think from scanning into focusing on a task (Websites should be designed to allow focus). When users are trying to focus on completing a form, for example, they may or may not intentionally click on web navigation therefore not completing the intended form. In the scenario where a persistent web navigation becomes a distraction, the web navigation should be kept to the minimum, such as just the Site ID.