Do your remember the old saying, "Keep it simple stupid"? Well I hope that you do remember it, and never forget it in your design efforts. That phrase will not only make your day-to-day existence more pleasant, but as a web design philosophy it will make your visitors much happier, and potentially increase your sales.
Websites these days are getting out of hand in their complexity. We surfers are continually bombarded with buttons to push, windows that need to be opened, closed, moved, resized etc. Not to mention the constant barrage of pop ups and banners all vying for our attention. Where does it end?
It can all stop with you and your efforts to create an elegant, fully functional web experience. This includes the colors you use, the fonts, the shape of the paragraphs and quantity and sizes of your images. Of course there are other factors that either add to or subtract from the simplicity and function of a good website experience. More than can be examined in this article, and by all means feel free to delve further into the subject. Take a course or two. Attend a webinar on line and see what the current intelligence says about the qualities of good web design.
As web designers we need to take into consideration that the only person that matters when designing a web site is the customer. No, not the owner of the site, or the shareholders of some distant corporation. The customers are the only ones that count. Think about that for a second. If your potential customer comes to your website and is confused by bad navigation or annoyed with blinking banners and blaring music, you've basically slammed the door in their face. Killing any chance of forming a quality relationship with that person, and relationships are what it is all about in the game business online.
Lets take a hypothetical comparison to help in the understanding here. Two websites. Both are for competing weekend spa retreats. Both websites have the standard opening page with menu and a big image that shows the interior of the spa, hoping to attract you by virtue its comfortable and exotic looking accouterment's. That's where the similarities end and the differences pop up. Lets suppose that Spa A has a sale running for the month and to promote it the designer has initiated a pop-up ad that fills the bottom 1/4 of the web page. It blinks repeatedly at 2 second intervals, flashing its bright orange text inviting you to click on it to read more about the sale. There is no off option for this pop-up.
Spa B has a competing sale at the same time and uses a small graphic just to the left of the main menu. It is subtle, yet due to it's position it is the 2nd graphic that is noticed by visitors after the big colourful photograph.
The owners of Spa B do a study of website visitors using eye tracking software. This divulges that the sale offered by Spa B is attracting more positive results over that offered by Spa A. Subsequently Spa B is booking more clients for the same time period due to its less obtrusive graphic and kinder approach. In thinking about the customer they are trying to attract, helps them determine the style of ads that a person who is looking for a relaxing experience probably will respond to. Therefore designing a marketing method that treats them in a gentle manner will probably give a much more favourable impression. That leaves flashing ads and loud graphics or music completely out of the equation. Keeping it simple wins more customers.
There are many techniques that can be employed to enable a webdesigner or non-designer to attract the client of choice to their website and improve conversion rates. You can find out more at http://www.twoeyesopen.ca/wp where websites are critiqued and reviewed for function, ease of use and other issues. Tune in each week for a new review or two.
A reviewer of photographer's websites I take web page design very seriously and make it a point to offer not only my opinion but valid suggestions to web designers and designer-wanna-bes in ways to make their online presence a better and more pleasing experience for visitors.
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