Musings from a graphic designer
September 20th, 2005 Edit
When I first started designing websites back in 1996 (yup, I used notepad and table tags were not supported), I translated print to the Internet. A home page was supposed to be a “cover” - like a brochure and so, yes, I’m guilty of creating brochure-ware.
Since my background was grounded more in sales and marketing with graphics as a secondary discipline, I quickly learned that what worked well in print did not work so well on the Internet. This began my self-learning experience to create web sites that worked well for site visitors and the search engines - thus working well for the site owner.
Here’s a few of the rules I try to keep in mind, when designing a web site:
- The fewer clicks it takes to get a site visitor to his goal, the better. People are not patient when they are sincere about looking for something whether it be information or a product purchase. The faster they find what they want, the faster they will order.
- Keeping navigation consistent throughout the site helps keep the site visitor from getting lost and frustrated. It’s not as important WHERE you put the navigation as it is that the navigation be in the same place on every page.
- It’s imperative that you tell the site visitor HOW they can buy from you. If you have an online store, make the checkout an easy process. If you don’t have an online store, make sure that your sales phone number is apparent as well as your order processing hours.
- Make the visitor experience at your site enjoyable. That does not necessarily mean that you need animation, sound, moving marquees, etc. In fact, many site visitors who are serious about making a purchase find these things deterents. Keep in mind that not all site visitors have the latest computers with maxed out memory. Large flash files, animated GIFs, and even sound can slow down the load time of your site and cause frustration for the site visitor.
- Keep the search engines in mind. Before you start creating a site with loads of graphics and very little HTML content, consider what the search engines will see. If the search engines can’t find your site, neither will anyone else.
- Finally, put good content at your site. Aim to produce a site that shows that your company is the most reliable source for information about your product(s) or service(s). Don’t be afraid to give out too much information. Spec sheets, application notes, technical bulletins all help a potential buyer make the purchase. While some of your competitors may take advantage of the data, the gains in sales should outweigh anything that a competitor could do with that data.
Those are just a few things that I have learned over time as I continue to design web sites for industrial clients. You can view a few of our designs by visiting my Web site.
Mary Ann Wells
Sr. Partner
Web-Kare, LLP
Entry Filed under: Website Design