There are a multitude of tricks and tips for web users to speed their use of web pages and sites. For instance, on most company web pages the company logo links directly to the home page regardless of where the logo is located. This offers a quick and easy way to start from the beginning after traveling through a large site. It is important to note that this is a practice of design and may not be implemented on every site; even some professional tech minded individuals are not aware of this.
Security and privacy are commonly used interchangeably in the web user communities - but they are treated quite differently by designers and developers. Security is the technical aspect of the site; the encryption of data sent over the Internet and the firewalls protecting it. Privacy pertains to the company's or site's policies towards personal information and not how secure that information is when transmitted and stored. Privacy tells the user what the company will do with the information. Users may click on a link trying to find information on the security of their information but they may be clicking on a privacy link instead. Knowing the difference can mean the difference between trusting a secure site or mistaking it for a non-secure site.
Menus have been used in many forms throughout the short history of the web and can be a complete annoyance for users. Drop down lists and menus can be easily navigated with the arrow keys. This applies to applications as well as web sites. A mouse is not needed to navigate drop down or fly out lists as most users think; the tab and arrow keys work quicker and easier.
It is possible to go directly to a page on a site if a user knows how URLs work. Most users go through the navigation links of the site to find the page they are looking for with no regard or inclination of the logic behind how the pages are organized. If a user does notice particular URLs for designated pages it may work on other sites with a similar structure and organization and they can use URL navigation instead. In addition, a good majority of users don't know what all of the browser buttons are used for. Most understand the "back" and "forward" buttons but rarely do they all know what the "stop" and "reload" buttons do. If a site or page will not load use the "reload" or "refresh" button to try again as the site may be having a glitch. The "stop" will stop all progress of the page loading to save time when a user is on a page they did not intended to be or when a page load error occurs.
Lastly, many users are not aware of their task bar or that it can be used for multiple browser windows to be open. The surprising fact is that many don't realize that task switching is possible, some people don't even know what it is. Multiple browser windows allow the end user to freely switch between different windows on different pages using the simple but effective "alt + tab" task switching shortcut on Windows computers. These simple tricks can help to streamline a web user's experience and allow for a more efficient use of the Internet.
