246 User Experience Re-Mastered: Your Guide to Getting the Right Design Allow the user to book the room online either through Lovely Rooms or by contacting the hotel's own Web site directly ("Online booking") Environment Because Lovely Rooms wants to appeal to busy business travelers, the booking service has specified that the site must be easy to use, even if the user is inter- rupted or in a noisy environment such as a busy open-plan office. Other than that, Lovely Rooms assumes that its users might be in any type of environment: home or office or even another hotel room. Technology Similarly, each user might have a different computer configuration. However, Lovely Rooms is assuming that some users, especially UK residents looking for a bargain, will have relatively low-specification PCs and will be using high-priced UK telephone lines and a slow modem. This means that the Web pages should be designed to download as quickly as possible. Conceptual Design The content diagram is based on a number of concrete use cases that are not included. It is only a small part of the conceptual design, focusing on the cus- tomer who wants to look at the details of hotels that are available. We have deliberately kept this simple so that the exercises do not take you too long. Primary task object: Hotel. Attributes: Hotel type (bed and breakfast, purpose-built hotel, converted older property, traditional inn or pub, restaurant with rooms); number of bedrooms; location; and special features. Actions: Browse through hotels; search for a hotel near a particular location. Figure 8.1 illustrates a simplified section of the corresponding content diagram. The main container links to the sequences of containers that correspond to each of the primary tasks. Metaphors: To help users who are not very familiar with the geography of the region, results from a search will be shown on a map as well as in a list. DESIGN PRINCIPLES FOR WEB SITES Before we start looking at some more specific guidelines, you should be aware of a number of key principles. We have grouped these according to the HOME- RUN acronym defined in Nielsen (2000). High-Quality Content The content of your site is critical. If you do not provide the information or functionality that your target users want, they may never visit your site again. If your Web site sells, say, cars, and it does not include key information such