Don't make me think - Steve Krug
For each one of these different principles below I've found a website to describe what is going on.
1. A site with excessive background noise or with excessive busy-ness.
LINK:
http://www.lingscars.com
This shows WAY to much of background noise and busy-ness with everything going on you have no idea what you are looking for. Then you also have a very annoying music in the background that is pretty much forcing you to click off of this website.
2. A site with a very low amount of competing noise.
LINK:
http://www.ewedding.com
This is a very good example of a website with not very much competing noise because there are no annoying animations or music in the background that would distract you from the main topic or why you went to the website in the first place
3. A site where it is not obvious what is clickable.
LINK:
http://irishwrecksonline.net
This doesn't show any obvious signs that there would be any links on this webpage. There is also a lot other stuff wrong with this website but this probably shows the most.
4. A site where it is obvious what is clickable.
LINK:
http://www.unlocking.com
This website had a very good example of where you click if you go to this website because it doesn't make you think a lot whenever you first go to the website and its very easy to find out anything you would be looking for inside a link.
5. A site not split up into clearly defined areas.
LINK:
http://arngren.net
This is a VERY bad example of a website all together... but i believe that this would be a great example of not very defined areas because of how cramped everything all together was.
6. A site split up into clearly defined areas.
LINK:
http://www.cloudpassage.com
This shows a very good example of defined areas because everything is very spaces apart to the point to where it doesn't look bad but its just right to find your way around and know what your looking for.
7. A site that makes good use of conventions.
LINK:
http://www.amazon.com
This shows a lot of good different convention like the logo, important items, and obvious places to go.
8. A site that make good use of visual hierarchies.
LINK:
http://www.freshbooks.com
This shows a good example of visual hierarchies because it has all of the same color scheme, good contrast, shows whats most important, and the important things are very obvious.