I recently enjoyed a post on SEOmoz about presenting web traffic stats in a more meaningful and useful way. I found this to be a great way to visualize how traffic to different sections of a site compares over time.
I’d been wondering how the different sections of my Elements of Design site had been performing and so thought it would be useful to do the same analysis for it.
Here’s the chart that resulted (covering the most popular sections of the site):
Elements of Design % of total page views by section (click to view larger)
It was interesting to see what a large and consistent percentage of overall traffic the Login Forms section represented. Obviously, a lot of people are looking for inspiration and guidance with designing these.
You can also see how the Buttons section, which I introduced in December 2009, grew to about 11% of traffic over the next month before tailing off to a steady 6-7% of page views.
In this example I used percentages rather than raw numbers to more easily show how the different sections compare against each other. Of course, this doesn’t show how the each section is performing in absolute terms over time (is traffic growing or falling), so both views have their uses.
Buttons are a small but critical part of a web site design. In the best designs they create a strong call-to-action — add to cart, sign up, or learn more — as well being one of the details that reinforces the overall quality of the design.
Zendesk button
Here are over 60 examples of great web button design to provide some ideas and inspiration for attractive buttons to enhance your next web page design.
Looking for examples of good design of the various elements that make up a web site? Check out my Elements of Design showcase. It covers a range of areas, from search boxes to footers, and is regularly updated.
