Phanatique

I will present my considerations about the “web design concept”, drawing a parallel between: building a head office and building a website.

When you draw the project of your head office, you have in mind that the final product should be elegant, comfortable for your clients, functional, optimal for your staff/visitors needs and all these, respecting the limits of your budget. In the case of a website project, things are pretty much the same.

Few things to have in mind in the project phase and implementation phase of your website:

• Structural architecture. The simplicity never fails. Use clean information architecture, a logic one, easy to follow by every new visitor. A complicated architecture for your site will put the user in the position of being “lost” in a jungle of information, pages, links, etc. Think about the website architecture as you think about your office architecture, you will not want to need a map to find the bathroom in your own company. In the same way, the website is not meant to be a labyrinth.
• The Homepage. The Homepage is your front “entrance”. Once in, the user should know where he is (your logo will help him know that he is on the X company website), what your business is about, in what way your website is going to answer his needs (a summary of your most important news and promotions is a good start). Do not stuff in your Homepage a lot of unnecessary information. Have in mind that this is just the “entrance” that is supposed to excite the user’s curiosity for the rest of the pages; it is not the “whole” thing. On your head office entrance you just put a sign with your company logo, and your company name. You will not put there your mission statement, your business philosophy, pictures with your employees, social security numbers, your political orientation and religious beliefs.
• The graphics. Use the graphics for creating your unique design, but do not do it excessively. Too much graphics will ruin the design and will be visually painful for the user. Again, think about of your company office: you probably use elements of interior design to create an elegant, but professional space. However, you will never use Christmas decorations combined with Easter decorations and plastic palm trees.

Pay attention to over-sized graphics cause these will slow down significantly the loading of the pages. Avoid too many pop-up windows, too much flash graphics and many sparkling advertising banners.  

• The unity in style. Every page in a different color, written in different fonts, with a significant different design, will not help you at all. For the users will be confusing, and they will not have a clue about your real visual identity, they will wonder if there is one. Maintain basic design features for every page and you will have a unity in style and the opportunity of being “remembered”. If a user sees the same features (logo, colors, style) on more than 3 pages, chances are bigger that these  features to make an impression on his mind  than if you show him 3 different perspectives of  your “style” in one place.
• Navigation tools. On every page of your website, the user should know where he is and where he can go from there. A site map is a useful tool, especially if your website offers a lot of information structured in categories, subcategories, or other form of inclusion in the website. You may help him with a dynamic sitemap indicating the page from which it was accessed and highlighting information of interest to specific user. In addition,  a sitemap is a good thing to do from Google’s point of view, too. Google uses your Sitemap to learn about the structure of your site and to increase its coverage of your web pages.
• Usability. Let’s take again the case of your head office: you do not want to have a head office at 30^th floor with a non-functional elevator in the building, or an office without electricity, or with a height of the doors of only 1,5 meter.  In the same way, make sure that on your website the text is easy to read, there are no broken links that leads nowhere, there are no horizontal scrollbars and the design is proper for all screen resolutions (you may use a flexible layout that “stretches” for any resolution, from 800×600 to 1280×1024).
• Interact with the users. Don’t present your information in a static and “one-way” direction: from you to your user. Your user might like to have an opinion once in a while, choose the two or three-way form: from you to your user, from your user to you and from user to user. For that, you can use one of these tools: have a blog, create a community, ask their opinion with polls, make online contests (individuals or teams), etc.
• Give users reasons to come back. When a potential customer enters in your company, you make sure that he is welcomed, he gets a comfortable chair, he gets all the information he desires, you listen to what he has to say, you offer him a cookie and a glass of water and try to offer him a solution for his needs.

In the same way we should treat the user of our website, after all he is a potential customer too. That is why our site should be a comfortable place for him, he should find quickly all the information he needs and if he wants further details, he can easily use a contact form or can get help from an online customer service. He should have the opportunity to say his opinion and you should offer him something in return for his interest about your website. Some ideas: special bonuses, discounts, free advice/consulting, prizes, etc.

It is sufficient to think about our own online behavior to understand that. We always enjoy being part of a community, being treated with special attention, finding useful information/tips that a site is offering us free, being surprised with a gift just because we bought something from that website last year.

If you can give him reasons to come back, he will!

P.S. And now a funny treat: How a web design goes straight to hell

Tags: engage with user, feature, graphics, homepage, information, logo, navigation tool, online behavior, pop-up window, sitemap, style, usability, website

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