| |
| |
|
Web Design Information |
|
|
|
Orient Your First-time Web Site Visitor
Imagine spinning someone around so profoundly and for so long that when you finally tell them to open their eyes, they ask "Where am I?" not knowing if they are even on the same continent they started from. When someone comes to your web site from a search engine or through a link from another site, it's like that for them. They may have little or no context within which to understand your home page - or another page deep within your site that they've landed on. By imagining and engineering your site for that profoundly disoriented visitor, you can add subtle clues and explicit messages to your site that orient the person arriving at your site from who knows where. You can do this without "dumbing down" your presentation in any way, turning confused visitors into converted ones. For instance, while judging sites for the Webby Awards, I've sometimes found myself at a home page about a city that appears justifiably proud of itself for all that it's achieved, yet I haven't a clue what state or province or even what country that city is located in. It's easier to appreciate what you're reading if you know that Kamloops is in British Columbia, Canada and not in Scotland or New Zealand. Likewise, when people are searching for a service provider and you do what you do only in a specific geographical area, say so right on your home page. For instance, if you provide emergency on-site technical support throughout Southern Vermont, say so. You'll have fewer potential clients clicking away in confusion and have fewer inappropriate phone or email inquiries to deal with. Sometimes the missing orientation pertains to your profession rather than geography. For instance, I was once sent to look at a site on "Japanese candlestick trading" and found myself completely mystified. After reading a few paragraphs, I gathered that this had something to do with investing in the stock market, but even after I'd read the whole page I didn't know what it had to do with Japan or with candlesticks. How much nicer to include a sentence like this not far into the home page: "Since its origin in 14th century Japan, this method of stock trading according to candlestick-shaped patterns of price shifts on a graph has..." Another time I evaluated a site for a firm that did "information protection" and "intellectual asset management." Even after reading the entire site, I wasn't sure what kinds of information or intellectual assets the firm protected and managed. I checked with the head of the firm, and my top two guesses were wrong. In fact, the firm helps companies protect trade secrets, confidential company information and intellectual property from theft or inadvertent exposure. Again, be specific and clear so that you let first-time visitors understand whether you offer the expertise or product line that they're looking for. These three site components help you provide clues to first- time visitors to your site: the page title - the text that appears in the top left corner of the browser; the site's name and tag line, which normally appear as unifying elements on every page; and the wording or text that appears on the home page or other page. Explicitly or through the accumulation of strong clues, make sure that someone coming to your site without any advance warning of what you do will feel oriented within their first 20 or 30 seconds. Marcia Yudkin is the author of Web Site Marketing Makeover and 10 other books. A four-time Webby Awards judge and internationally famous marketing consultant, she critiques web sites and performs web site makeovers for clients. Learn more about her detailed critique sessions on five different kinds of web sites at http://www.yudkin.com/websitequiz.htm .
MORE RESOURCES:
Web-Design - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Website Advertising: 10 Dynamic Tactics To Super-Charge Your Sales Here are 10 dynamic website advertising tactics to super-charge your sales, starting now:1. Test different web site color themes to see which combination will sell your product better. The Best Simple Software For The Busy Webmaster Here are a few programs I can't do without. They're free, and make being a webmaster much easier. How to Convince Your Visitors to Return Often One visit does not make a sale. Be sure to make your Web site attractive to your visitors so that they want to come back. Flash Doesnt Always Add Shine to Web Efforts The trend today to overuse animation in a website's opening pages only serves to confirm that style often overshadows substance. Sometimes a "flash" in the pan - often courtesy of Macromedia Corp. Technology vs. Usability When JV Media Design was formed, the year was 1995 and the Internet was a very different place than it is today.The first websites we created used simple layouts, a modest amount of graphics, standard "web safe" colors, and no javascript. 5 Ways To Automate Your Site Automating your online business is one of the most important steps you can take to insure your success on the internet.If you have been on the internet for any time at all, you know that there are just too many tasks to do each day to be really efficient and productive with them all. If Content is King who is Queen? It's been said again and again, when it comes to getting people to visit your site (and stay there for more than 5 seconds), the quality of your content rules supreme. But once you've bowed to interest, saluted relevance and kow-towed to originality, who else must you pay homage to for recognition in the court of website stickiness?The two jewels in the crown of Presentation, for it is of course Presentation who is Queen, are structure and graphical design. Title Tags - How to Make Them More Effective The title tags of your web pages are more important than most web authors realize. Once you understand why the title is so important, you can easily write more effective title tags. Selling Multiple Products? Avoid These Top Blunders When your web site sells more than a dozen items, you may face a fierce challenge of helping shoppers find what they are looking for. You'll need to classify products into categories, but these will serve as obstacles and even deal killers if those categories do not match those in the heads of shoppers. Designing Professional Web Pages If your Web site doesn't project a professional and polished image to your visitors, your credibility and that of your products and services will suffer. Image is everything -- especially online where your competitor is only one mouse click away!Before your first HTML code is written, you will need to consider your Web site's navigational structure, color scheme and page layout. Alternative to Web Site Templates and Design Software Before I discovered the concept of Web site templates, I felt woefully inadequate to build my own site. It was the old "catch-22" where I didn't have the money to pay to have a site built, I needed a site to make the money to have a professional site, and without the knowledge of how to build a site, I had no hope of getting a site. Questions to Ask When Designing a Website for Clients Questions to ask when designing a Web Site for your client (s)."Excerpt from the book: Graphic Artists Guild, Handbook Pricing & Ethical guidelines Written by: Brent ParkerThese questions are a great tool to use when trying to develop your clients website. Cascading Style Sheets for Better Web Design In cascading style sheets you can specify how your web pages will be presented on the screen by simply predefining page elements such as fonts, headers and links.You can add these predefined elements in the head-section of your pages, but more interesting is to use them in a single . The Top Ten Checklist For Low Web Site Sales You have good traffic, but low client sign ups and other sales. Web sites are only as good as their copy. How to Create A Homepage That Works Want to know what the worst thing to say on a homepage is?"Welcome to our homepage." And yet, time after time, we all come across such homepages on the Internet. KIS - Keep It Simple There are many ways to add fancy bells and whistles to your website, but most of them are not going to do you any good. In fact they will slow down the time it takes to load your website and take up valuable space that you are paying for. Custom Web Site Design Strategies Web site design has certainly, in the past decade, evolved tremendously. More clients now are demanding custom design, as opposed to the 'cookie cutter' sites of yesteryear. Why Use a Web Design Template? What is a Website Template?Many smart and savvy businesses are choosing to use a website template, and avoiding employing a professional designer. Why? Well, there are clear benefits: saving on cost, saving on time, and ensuring quality. Are You Driving Away Potential Customers? When a prospect lands on your website will he or she understand what you are presenting? Do your ordering/sign up instructions make sense? Can prospects easily find the information they are searching for? If you don't know the answers to these questions you may be driving away potential customers.As a writer I put a lot of effort into making ideas clear. Website Design: Secrets Of Professional Website Designers Revealed What colors do you have at your website?Can they make a difference in the number of sales that you generate?Can the use of the right colors in your website design actually increase your sales?The answer is yes!So pay attention to thesee website design secrets.When people see certain colors they can change their emotions or they can symbolize things related to the colors.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
