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Web site usability and presentation is perhaps the most important factor in
any web design. This is the driving factor that gives your visitors a positive,
professional impression of your company and keeps them coming back to your website.
This issue focuses on the “12 Essential Web Site Design Tips” that
anyone wishing to promote their products or services on the Internet should
benefit from.
1. What’s the purpose?
The most fundamental thing to do before designing your web site is to define
its purpose. Do you want to sell products directly to your customer through
your web site, or collect contact details to develop future relationships? A
lot of this will depend on the products or services you sell, those with a larger
price tag will require more relationship building than those that would count
as an “impulse” purchase. People also use web sites to research products
as well as purchase them so a company selling fridges for example may not be
able to sell them through their web site (people don’t often buy fridges
online!) but they may well be able to direct them to their nearest store where
the item they are interested in is in stock.
Identify the purpose of your web site and make sure all the actions you ask
the customer to take leads them to the final outcome you have identified.
2. Define the structure
Once you have decided the final outcome you want to achieve, whether it’s
a sale, an enquiry, etc. work out a logical progression through the process
your customer would need to go through and structure your web site around it.
Give the customer the information they will be looking for and help them find
it easily and quickly. If you offer a large range of products, use a search
facility, if your products carry a detailed specification, add a “click
for spec” button which links to further information on an additional page,
this way you will not slow those who are ready to buy, but offer the additional
info required by those still undecided.
Above all, keep the structure and progression as simple and logical as possible.
3. Decide on an overall design layout.
Most web sites have navigation down the left hand of the page, the company logo
graphic across the top and the content of the page below and to the right. Another
common layout is to have both the logo and navigation menu along the top of
the page and the page content across the page beneath it. As these are the most
familiar layouts to users, it would be wise to stick with them as the last thing
you want to do is make your web site confusing to your customers.
Avoid too many moving graphics, as they are distracting, avoid large logo-only
entrance pages (click here to enter site…) as they only delay the user
and avoid anything “cute” that may undermine your professional look.
4. Be careful with colours.
Use contrasting colours for your text, black or blue on a white background is
ideal. Don’t forget to check the colours of your text links both before
and after they’ve been visited, you don’t want them to disappear.
Patterned backgrounds look dated and unprofessional and make your text harder
to read, try to avoid them. If you have them, use your corporate colours in
your logos, buttons, etc. and keep the overall colour scheme inoffensive, clean
and simple.
5. Be consistent.
Put your links or buttons in a prominent place and keep them in the same place
on every page. Make sure your colours, navigation, typeface and text size are
consistent on every page. Make sure the user knows which page they are currently
viewing and provide direct links to the contact and home page on every page
of your web site.
6. Don’t get creative with your typeface.
Make sure that your text is easy to read. It’s very tempting to use an
unusual typeface but your customers will appreciate text that’s easy on
the eye. They want to read your information and not be challenged in doing so.
Also remember, when it comes to overall design layout, white space is beautiful.
Break up your text into short paragraphs, bullet points, etc.
For more detailed advice on designing a professional web site that will achieve
high search engine listings and increase customer conversion rates, download
our ebook “Start at the Beginning”. Click here for an excerpt: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_2.html
7. It’s all in the content.
Once you've defined your purpose and planned your layout, design and navigation
you should begin to create your content. Once you have decided what pages will
be on your web site you will have a good idea of the kind of content that will
be needed for each page. Write all the text that should go on each page, decide
which graphics or photos to use and remember to space the information out on
the page.
This is a critical step. Once you have established credibility with a professional
looking design and layout, it’s the content that will either convince your
customers to buy, or have them clicking away to your competition. If you are
not a professional copywriter, get some help. Either pay a professional to do
it for you or for invaluable advice, read our guide “Writing Text That
Sells”.
Click here for an excerpt from the book: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_3.html
8. Make it brief
It has been proved time and again that Internet users have a short attention
span. They find long pages and acres of text off-putting. Give all the information
that’s required but keep it concise, break it up with graphics and try
to make your pages as short in length as possible. Don’t make your viewers
scroll down more than an extra page height and give your visitors manageable
chunks of text that keep them interacting with your site. If your page is longer
than this, consider splitting the information over two or more pages.
9. Check your facts, spelling and grammar
Few things are more likely to cost you customers than incorrect information
or poorly written or misspelled text on your business website. It will destroy
your credibility. Read through all your text carefully and double check all
the facts, get someone else to proof read it and run the text through a spell
checker after checking your language settings (English – US or UK for example).
Then do it all again, twice!
10. Check your web sites download speed
We’ve already mentioned that Internet users have a short attention span.
Once your web site is ready with text and graphics on all the pages, check that
it loads quickly at various connection speeds and remember that not everyone
has a fast connection. Where possible reuse buttons and graphics, as they will
load quickly when they have been viewed once.
11. Check browser compatibility
Check how the site looks on different browsers and at different screen resolutions.
People use different browser settings to alter text sizes and have additional
toolbars filling up their browser windows. Nothing is more frustrating than
a site that you can’t read because it is a fixed size and disappears off
your screen.
Have a look at your web site using http://www.anybrowser.com.
12. Check customer compatibility!
Finally, do a dummy run. Get a typical customer to road test your web site.
If possible, ask them to buy a product and let them go through the whole process
from start to finish. Did they manage to find what they wanted in three or fewer
clicks? Did they find it easy to complete the purchase? How long did it take?
Did they become confused or distracted at any point?
More detailed advice and tips on how to construct a web site, or optimise an
existing one, for both customer use and search engine listings, can be found
in our ebook “Start at the Beginning”. It’s the first essential
step before undertaking any marketing or advertising campaign. More information
and an excerpt can be found here: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_2.html
About the Author:
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