I am taking Introduction to Web Interface and Usability this month and the more I learn about it the more I really like that line of work.
It just fascinates me the many different ways that people search for things online and how they use the websites they arrive at. Below are just 2 simple examples of how a new user and an intermediate user have used the address bar and search bar.
A New User: I remember working with an older woman at a Nursing home and I was teaching her the ins and outs of the Internet. She insisted on using the address bar as the search bar for her keywords. After explaining the difference to her she understood and was on her way searching on the billions of web sites that are out there.
Intermediate User: I have also watched many people type the url of a website into the search bar and hit enter. It just amazes me how Internet users that have been online for years still do this. Not that you can’t do it, just that the address bar is where you put the address of the web site and the search bar is where you search on a specific keyword and search the whole Internet.
My motto in life (that my parents taught me) has always been to “Put yourself in someone else’s shoes” or you might know it as “Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.” If every business, corporation, designer developer, IT tech, and Internet Marketer were to follow this motto when designing for web sites “What a Wonderful World Wide Web We Would have.” (Wow, say that 10x’s real fast 
)
In all the reading that I have done I have realized that there are questions that a user is asking when they arrive at your site. If you can answer these questions within seconds then you’re on the right track…
1. What website are you on – Make sure your site Id is prominent on EVERY page.
2. What page are you on – Users don’t always come onto your site through your home page so make sure that the page they come in through is well defined.
3. Make sure your site navigation is easy to read and understand.
4. If a user wants to get a hold of you can they? Is your phone number, address, e-mail address or contact us link visible without having to look for it?
These are just a few things I have learned thus far…
