October 2003

Government publishes Web design guidelines as a resource

Have you considered building a Web page but did not know where to start? The government is now providing a resource.

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced the availability of a new research-based guide to Web site design and usability. In partnership with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of HHS' National Institutes of Health, HHS today issued Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines, a resource that will help government, academic, commercial and other groups involved in the creation of Web sites make decisions based on user research, not personal opinions.

According to recent statistics, more than 35 million use Web pages at more than 22,000 Web sites across the federal government alone, and more than 60 percent of all Internet users in the United States interact with federal government Web sites each year.

The Guidelines were originally developed by the NCI to help Web managers and designers present cancer information on the Web in a more usable fashion. Although the original intent was to develop guidelines for improving specific federal sites on cancer, the project expanded in scope and resulted in a set of peer-reviewed guidelines that are applicable to Web site usability and design regardless of whether a site is developed by government, commercial, academic or other entities.

The new resource contains 187 guidelines for effective Web design and usability and covers a wide range of Web site design issues, including accessibility, home page design, page and site navigation, graphics and images, Web content organization and effective Web content writing. Each guideline contains:

• A brief statement of the overarching principle that is the foundation of the guideline;

• Comments that further explain the research/supporting information;

• Citations to relevant Web sites, technical and/or research reports supporting the guideline.

• A score indicating the "strength of evidence" that supports the guideline. These range from "strong research support," indicating that there is at least one formal, rigorous study with contextual validity and agreement among experts to "Weak Research Support," indicating limited evidence and disagreement among experts.

• A score indicating the "Relative Importance" of the guideline to the overall success of a Web site. These scores range from 1-5 and are intended to help guide usability experts and Web designers to prioritize the implementation of these guidelines.

• One or more graphic examples of the guideline in practice.

NCI solicited experts from across government, industry and academia to contribute to the development of the guidelines. The complete set of guidelines is available at http://usability.gov/pdfs/guidelines.html.

Source: Department of House and Human Services

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