Blog Two
How to determine if a website achieves exceptional web design?
To determine if a website achieves exceptional web design it must reflect principals of good interaction design. Airbnb sets the benchmark for impressive web interaction design. With over seven million listings that attracts over 150 million users, its success derives from Airbnb’s design team to create a user experience which surpasses that of other similar services.
What makes Airbnb an exceptional web design?
Using Jakob Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design and other noteworthy principals, I will discuss what makes Airbnb an exceptional web design.
Image source airbnb.ie
See landing page above, principal of aesthetic and minimalist design are achieved through use of negative space and relevant information. The background illustration dominates the page while only necessary items such as the logo, search bar, login and tagline are presented.
Recognition rather than recall can be seen by the layout of the information. Logo located top left hand side, search bar centre and login located top right is a layout which is standard throughout most website designs and one users are familiar with. Once the user moves down the page, the logo, search bar and login coverts to a static bar (see image below). This static bar also draws upon other principals including user control and freedom and flexibility and efficiency of use. For example, clicking on the logo will always return the user to the homepage.
Image source airbnb.ie
Airbnb’s draws upon Gestalt principals of similarity, proximity, continuation, symmetry and uniform connectedness to present search results that are easy for the user to digest and process. See image below;
Image source airbnb.ie
Fundamental to Airbnb’s success is the speed in which the website responds after its users input. Airbnb utilises The Doherty Threshold well by providing system feedback within 400ms to keep its users’ engaged.
Robert Cialdini’s The Principal of Scarcity is something that Airbnb applies very well. Scarcity creates urgency and urgency is one of the most powerful aspects of human psychology. See image below.
Image source airbnb.ie
Reserving the accommodation and continuing to the payment page to ultimately make the purchase is the main objective of the website. Airbnb applies Fitts's Law, a theory that states that “the time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target” . See the image below, the user is drawn towards Reserve and Confirm and pay as it is contained within a large tab, its colour creates contrast and is in close proximity to the information above.
Image source airbnb.ie
Image source airbnb.ie
Conclusion
It is clear from my analysis that Airbnb sets the benchmark for impressive web interaction design. This has been achieved by applying the many principals of interaction design. To find out more about these principals visit https://www.nngroup.com
Sources
Cardello, J. (2014) Scarcity Principle: Making Users Click RIGHT NOW or Lose Out. Available at: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/scarcity-principle-ux/ (Accessed: 8 Mar 2021)
Curry, D. (2021) Airbnb Revenue and Usage Statistics, Business of Apps. Available at: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/airbnb-statistics/ (Accessed: 8 Mar 2021)
Nielsen, J. (2020) 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design. Available at: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/ (Accessed: 8 Mar 2021)
Unknown, (2020) Fitts's Law: The Importance of Size and Distance in UI Design. Available at: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/fitts-s-law-the-importance-of-size-and-distance-in-ui-design (Accessed: 8 Mar 2021)
Unknown, (Unknown) Doherty’s Threshold, Available at: :https://lawsofux.com/doherty-threshold (Accessed: 8 Mar 2021)