Skills Spot – Designing An Effective Website
The Web is a very crowded place and getting your message across, whatever it is, is a little like shouting to be heard above the noise and power of a football crowd of 65,000 on a Saturday afternoon.
It is not an easy task and you have to have a site that grabs attention and critically that is easy for your buyer to move through. Always remember buyers are impatient people; if I go into a shop or cafe and I get no service within a reasonable amount of time I will walk out. The same applies for web purchasing patterns!
So, what are the basic “must-do” building blocks in planning a good, profitable site?
- The design should be ALL ABOUT the user experience
- Knowing who the users of the site will be (the different client groups e.g. for a Bar or Restaurant are the customers social drinkers, can we entice in business clients and host meetings on the premises, a venue for private functions)
- Who are the important users likely to be?
- What is their purpose in accessing the site?
- How frequently will they visit the site?
- What experience and expertise do they have?
- What nationality are they? Can they read English?
- What type of information are they looking for?
- How will they want to use the information? Will they read it on screen, download it, etc?
- What type of browsers will they use?
- How large a screen/window will they use?
- Can we introduce Expert Reviews into the site to sell the message?
- If possible ask a professional web designer to check out the usability of the site
- Thoroughly and regularly test out the functionality of the site’s features
- Effectiveness- Can users complete their tasks correctly and completely?
- Productivity (Efficiency) – Are tasks completed in an acceptable length of time?
- Satisfaction: are users satisfied with the interaction?
A higher listing in the search rankings can be generated through proper structuring of information which in turn brings more site traffic and business.
Good Luck!
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