Good websites begin with a good design that is simple to use. The graphic design and content on the homepage should grab the consumer’s attention, and the interior pages should be easy to navigate. Information must be easily found and should be expressed in the “language” of the customer, rather than the company’s internal lingo.
Here are 10 simple tips to consider when deciding on how the site will look and how customers will navigate through it:
- Immediately tell visitors on the site what the company does.
- Get users to the information they want in two clicks or less.
- Consider including headers and links that give the store’s name, and include a “breadcrumb” showing visitors where they are in relation to the “Home” page at all times. Visitors should know where they are within the website at all times.
- Allow visitors to find answers to questions easily.
- Incorporate sufficiently large fonts and images, as well as audio descriptions where appropriate, so that content is accessible to users with disabilities.
- Pay special attention to the quality of information, and ensure that the text is written well and spelled correctly.
- Use buzz words sparingly.
- Include a link to the homepage on every page so that in one click, users can be led there.
- Develop visuals that are useful, not flashy and distracting. Useful visuals include illustrations or photos of products, graphics that separate categories of products, or maps with directions.
- Determine which technologies are appropriate and which are overkill. For example, developing a landing page in Macromedia’s Flash technology may be a nice design feature, but it is annoying to your visitors and completely ignored by the search engines. Don’t use it.