This magic button is almost always forgotten, but 90% of the time when you don’t see what you think you should be seeing on a webpage, the culprit is the same: cache.

Imagine: a few hours after discussing some edits to your site with your trusted designer. Your designer says he just updated the graphics or layout of your website and you’re excited to see it. You go to your favorite browser (which I hope is not IE), and type in your url. “Hm, that’s funny, I thought they said it was updated, do they think every day is April Fools or something?!” Then after an email and a phone call they confirm that they did update the page, you go back to it once again and still don’t see anything different! By this time you are wishing you could reach through the phone and smack somebody. You look on a different computer and see the update, and are beyond confused when you go to your computer and still don’t see the update.

Eventually, the designer tells you to try refreshing or clearing your cache. That sounds like a good plan, but what the heck is he talking about? Cache is one way smart guys have determined the internet can work better and faster. Essentially when your browser (for example Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer) views a webpage it copies it from the internet to your computer. Then if you view that page again your browser remembers that it’s seen it recently, so it displays your local copy rather than connect with the server and download a new copy every single time. Especially with linked images and files such as style sheets and scripts. This helps you see the internet and websites faster. This is a good thing except when you want to see the most updated version in your browser.

There are however a couple ways you may tell the browser to forget the cached version of the page and load it all fresh from the server. The standard shortcuts are (windows) ‘ctrl + F5′ and (mac) ‘cmd + R’. You can also go to your browser options and delete browser history, but that will clear all your cache and not just the page you are on. This is almost always the case when you’re not seeing what you should be seeing on a site. So next time it happens, take a moment and hit F5 to save a headache.

People are amazed at how well Apple is doing, they are doing better now than Microsoft! I think Apple understands the power of design and this has helped get them where they are now. Apple hardware/software (since they are almost the same thing) focus very heavily on appearance and design.

Alex of Airtight Interactive points out:

Apple understands that laptops and phones are the new watches and jewelry. We are using them majority of our waking life. They define us to the people around us. They need to be both functional and beautiful. Apple products have plenty of hardware and software issues, but people are willing to forgive them since the products are so nice to look at.

He also points to the design by Andrew Kim that I love. I hope other companies get into their heads the fact that design really IS that important!

Say Mega what?

Navigating large websites has always been a problem for visitors.  Often times you are stuck creating a huge sitemap-like menu with links to every page, but it quickly could become impossible to scan as more pages are added.

Typically you will find either:

1. A small simple menu that links to pages with additional navigation as you delve deeper . These are easy to use and accessible, but multiple clicks can be required to reach the content you want.
2. Dynamic drop-down or “fly-out” expanding menus that allow visitors to reach most pages no matter where they are.  While this provides quick navigation, accessibility can be poor and those without JavaScript enabled in their browser might never see some pages.

Mega drop-downs are half-way between the two concepts.  The nice thing is you can do so much more that just simple drop downs, you can even add graphics to enhance the user experience like:

(example from aviary.com)

Some of the basic features of a mega menu

Typically, a mega menu:

• is a single drop-down that appears on hover in the main navigation
• shows all the options in one large panel for any given section
• groups options into related categories to make them easy to find
• uses icons or other graphics to direct the user to the right section.

Why mega menus will become popular

There are several reasons why mega drop-down menus are starting to become a mainstream feature of many websites:

1. They offer a good compromise between simple and expanding menus.
2. They are easy to use and should suffer fewer accessibility problems.
3. They look great and give website owners more scope to express their artistic creativity!
4. The panel provides more navigation options for the users and, often, these options are organized in groups to emphasize connections among items.

Perhaps the most compelling reason: Jakob Nielsen approves of mega menus! The web usability expert is usually critical of most design widgets, but he thinks mega menus are a great idea and suggests website owners try them to improve their website’s navigation.

What do you think? Will mega menus become ubiquitous? Are you using them already? Will you try them on your sites?

Our Po!nt:  This is one of those trends that we have embraced and are very excited about sharing this dynamic experience with our clients.  From simple information request, to great looking navigation, to enhancing  your site visitor’s experience, talk to your account manager about adding a Navigation Mega Menu Makeover to your website.  As always we welcome your thoughts and comments.

(Part 1 of 2)

You will hear me talk about usability a lot on this blog…and everywhere else.  We have a passion for usability, and yet this very important aspect of web design is often overlooked not only by clients, but also by many web designers and developers.  In this, the first post of a two-part series, we will explain what usability is, and why it is important to you as you look to create a new website for your business.

Simply put, usability is Continue Reading »