Eric Reiss' Web Dogma '06 | Borislav's POV

Eric Reiss’ Web Dogma ’06

Recently, I have completed my Master degree in Digital Marketing at Instituto de Empresa. It was an enormously rewarding experience, especially considering the people I’ve met there. One of those people was my Usability & Design professor Eric Reiss – a person so knowledgeable about the Internet and an evangelist of the importance of user experience (UX). And when I say UX, I don’t mean the usual crap that every other website is bragging about, but really focusing on the user experience from his/her point of view.

I wanted to share 10 rules that Eric Reiss scribbled down in his Web Dogma’06. If you take the time to ponder on it, I am sure you will have that epiphany to bring your site to the next level when it comes to UX.

Web Dogma ’06

Here are 10 rules that will enhance the user experience of any website or online application:

1. Anything that exists only to satisfy the internal politics of the site owner must be eliminated.

2. Anything that exists only to satisfy the ego of the designer must be eliminated.

3. Anything that is irrelevant within the context of the page must be eliminated.

4. Any feature or technique that reduces the visitor’s ability to navigate freely must be reworked or eliminated.

5. Any interactive object that forces the visitor to guess its meaning must be reworked or eliminated.

6. No software, apart from the browser itself, must be required to get the site to work correctly.

7. Content must be readable first, printable second, downloadable third.

8. Usability must never be sacrificed for the sake of a style guide.

9. No visitor must be forced to register or surrender personal data unless the site owner is unable to provide a service or complete a transaction without it.

10. Break any of these rules sooner than do anything outright barbarous. (Shamelessly stolen from George Orwell’s famous Rules for Writers)

I will be trying to translate this list of rules in Bulgarian and post it soon. So stay tuned, if you think this will add value to you and your business.