usability in design

Articles by title + summation

2005-02-26T19:51:00.000-08:00

The Top Ten List Of Website Annoyances!
by Robert C. Potter

Easy navigation and usability are one of the most important aspects of creating a "user friendly" website.
However, there are still a "plethora" of web-sites out there that are, to be politically correct, “functionally challenged.” Does your website keep people captivated, or does it send
them fleeing as soon as they get to the first page? Do you offend your visitors with the following annoyances?
Read the article now »

Make your site quick to load!
by Michael Kralj

The time it takes to load your site can make or break a visitor’s first impression of your site. If your site takes too long to load, the visitor will click “Stop” or “Back” and leave your web site. If you are a business and offering people important information, it is critical to have a nice design, with a quick load time.
Read the article now »

Browser "Safe" Fonts
By Shruti Gupta

Fonts make a big difference to the look and experience of the website. Usage of fonts requires sense of aesthetics and discretion. We have the liberty to use any font we want in an image but when we specify the fonts for the text on a web page, we need to ensure that we use only 'browser safe" fonts.

So, here is a list of fonts that are preinstalled in Windows and Macintosh computers as they come out of the box.
Read the article now »

Ten Steps to a useable website
by Nigel Lew

Building a useable website can seem daunting. Here is a quick guideline to help you on your way. It’s all about your content.
Read the article now »

Mobile Accessibility - Your website in the year 2005
by Philip Wylie

Throughout 2004 the number of web enabled portable devices boomed. By “portable devices" I mean PDAs and smart phones. What does this mean for you? Well it depends whether or not you care about your visitors’ experience - you build your website for visitors so you really should!
Read the article now »

Designing for Content
by Kelly Paal

We’ve all been told that a successful website has great content. The problem that I’ve discovered is what do you do with and how to you organize all this great content?
Read the article now »

Is Your Web Site Too Hard?
by Roger C. Parker

Take the “Easy Test” to see if your website is as visitor friendly as it should be! Websites often fail to produce the desired results. This can be because visitors find them too hard to understand or navigate. Here are some potential usability problems to avoid.
Read the article now »

Advanced web design principles
by Zoran Makrevski

Regardless of our connection speed, Internet users expect information to be readily obtainable, pages to download quickly and solutions at the click of the mouse.
Read the article now »

3 Tips You Can Use Right Now to Improve Your Web sites Usability
by Jason Mann

Studies done by Jakob Nielson the man touted as the, “King of usability” by Internet Magazine showed that people do not read on the web like they would normally read offline.

So what does this mean to you and why should you care? Visitors to your web sites are in a rush, they want the information you promised and they want it NOW.
Read the article now »

You Too Can Have an Amazing Website
by Cal Hyslop

It is a well-known fact that a successful business depends greatly on how it is marketed. With an ever increasing dependence on the web, the use of a professional website is not only a necessity, but a priority. Although it is a common thought that only large businesses can have top-notch websites, with the tools available today what seemed impractical can now be a reality. Best of all, designing an extraordinary website can be done without hiring expensive web developers to create your site from scratch.
Read the article now »

The Top Ten List Of Website Annoyances!

2005-02-26T18:50:00.000-08:00

by Robert C. Potter

Easy navigation and usability are one of the most important aspects of creating a "user friendly" website.
However, there are still a "plethora" of web-sites out there that are, to be politically correct, “functionally challenged.” Does your website keep people captivated, or does it send
them fleeing as soon as they get to the first page? Do you offend your visitors with the following annoyances?

1) Music or any voice recording that automatically plays when you enter a site, without giving me the option of turning it off. Yes, there are still website owners who think that putting
their Midi version of "Play That Funky Music Whiteboy," will some how impress their visitors. Always give people the option of listening to any recorded information you have on your website.
Don't automatically assume that your visitors will be captivated by your voice, or your music.

2) Spinning or animated GIF's of any type. Websites that have the “Under Construction” sign when I hit your homepage. Don’t promote what you don’t have.

3) Any website that looks like it resembles Times Square in New
York City! Multitudes of “flashing” or “blinking” banner ads shoved in my face as soon as I reach your landing page will send me running. Flashing banner ads are the equivalent of a carnival barker trying to lure people into his sideshow! You don’t need to shout to people to get you message heard on the Internet. Keep you banner
ad’s limited, and your content abundant!

4) Website owners that make it too hard to navigate their site. If I have to jump through "link hoops" to get to your
information I am outta there. Make your product, price, or service, clear, precise, and easy to find. The "about us,” or "frequently asked questions" section of some web-sites, leaves me with more questions than answers. Design your content so that even elementary school children can understand the purpose of your website.

5) Pop-Ups..Pop-Ups...Pop-Ups..I don't mind one, or even a few. But, if I have to close multiple pop-ups to get to your
website, I will flee the scene. I have encountered some sites that had so many pop-ups they froze my computer screen.
And yes, I had my pop-up blocking software activated! It doesn’t always work. The same applies for any of those "fly-in" or "hover ads" that bounce across my computer screen. If you have to use anything, incorporate a pop-up that loads when a visitor leaves, not before, or during my visit to your site.

6) A page full of dead links and constant "Page Not Found" error messages. Keep your links up to date and take down the links that are no longer active.

7) Cursing or using worn out phrases like "Kick Butt," or "Kick Ass." (Example: “Kick Ass Copy-Writing Service,” “Kick Butt Web Marketing”). I can't get to the close button fast enough when I see anyone using that phrase in website advertising copy.
It maybe an excellent marketing headline, but for me, it is a total
turn-off. Impress your visitors with intelligent, informative, advertising copy and content.

8) AND SOMEONE-ANYONE-PLEASE! Stop the "ultra" dark background accented with an equally dark font! I have discovered many a website in which the background, and the text fonts, are
indistinguishable from each other! It looks like your are staring into a black hole! Lighten things up a bit, and don’t make me turn the brightness controls on my monitor to full! And no, I don’t want to highlight the text so I can read the information on your website!

9) While I love Marcomedia's Flash, I think it should be used sparingly. Unless you have a film site, or a product that requires a detailed visual description, just forget about using
flash for e-commerce. There is a majority of people out there who still use those pokey dial-up modems (me being one of them) and I "hate the wait!"

Even when I use the skip feature it still takes to long for the page to load. While doing research for
The Ultimate Guide To Products For Resale I noticed that some designer clothing wholesalers where using flash to sell their product. The same applied
to retail sellers of designer shoes, designer handbags, and designer
clothing.

My question is why? If you are using your site to sell a product, just stick with high quality, fast loading photos, followed up with good creative descriptions of each item. If you have to make people wait to buy your product, people will buy their product
somewhere else! If you absolutely, positively, must use Flash, make your files as fast loading as possible, especially if you are selling a product.

10) Solid blocks of text with no breaks between paragraphs. The only industry that gets away with that format is newspaper, book, and magazine publishers. The Internet is a different world altogether. People not only want their information quick, but they
also want to read it in smaller, "bit size" portions of content.

I like to skim over articles for the main points. If I have to "slog" through content that looks like a rambling diatribe with no paragraph breaks, I’m gone! Make your content clear and concise. Break up your paragraphs, and use plenty of "white space" when possible.

So there they are. My “Top Ten” pet peeves of dysfunctional design! Do you incorporate any of them in your website? When it comes to good design, and great site navigation, think of your website as if you were having guests over to your house. Make your house, as well as your website, “neat and ready to greet!” For more information about how to make your site user friendly, go to Jakob Nielsen's site for tips
on better website design and usability.

About the Author
Robert C. Potter is a wholesale and retail surplus products specialist. He is the author of “The Ultimate Guide To Products For Resale!” Over 300 Wholesale
& Surplus Supply Sources For Ebay Auction Sellers, E-Commerce Websites,
Flea Market Vendors, and Retail Store Owners! You can find his 160 page ebook
at: http://www.productsforresale.com

Make your site quick to load!

2005-02-26T18:49:00.000-08:00

by Michael Kralj

The time it takes to load your site can make or break a visitor’s first impression of your site. If your site takes too long to load, the visitor will click “Stop” or “Back” and leave your web site. If you are a business and offering people important information, it is critical to have a nice design, with a quick load time.

You may want to check out the load time of your page, to indeed see if your site loads quick enough for the average user. A great site tool can be found at
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/

where you are able to enter your site and it displays a report on the time it takes to load your site on different connections, in addition to tips to decrease load time.

Upon doing a speed test, if your first page takes a great time to load in the visitor’s browser, it is in the best interest to do some redesigning to decrease load time and increase the number of visitors that will not click back on the browser. We must remember that not everyone is running on DSL or Cable modem. Many users still dial up using a 56K connection. As web designers and site maintainers, we want to ensure our site’s load quickly, as to not lose potential visitors to your site.

Images, Sounds & Animations are the major menaces to download time. While these add nicely to a site, they may take up a lot of time to load. If you may avoid large sized files, please do. Many images may be optimized to look the same, however taking up less space, and download more quickly. Many image editors such as Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro can perform these tasks.

Sounds & Videos should be avoided on your main page, as they take up most time to load. Keep these for inner pages if possible. Videos and sound files can be from 100 KB to 1 MB in size or larger. If the user needs to load a 500 KB video file on a 56 K modem, it will take upwards to 89 seconds to complete. This definitely could turn the user away from your site. So keep these files to a fairly small size, or avoid if possible.

Text can also play a significant role in the load time. If you have a large amount of HTML code and large amount of content on your main page, it will also increase the load time. Text however is not as significant, as the entire text you have on the site may not be even the same size as a couple of pictures combined.

So limit the large sized graphics on your web sites. Your visitors will appreciate the fast loading site with the information being presented that they are looking for!

About the Author
Michael Kralj is owner of Emenki Web Solutions and Domains at Retail.
Emenki Web Solutions are web site designers and programmers based in Hamilton, Ontario, providing businesses with an informative and strategic approach to establishing an online presence on the web.

Please visit Emenki Web Solutions on the web
http://www.emenki.com
Please visit Domains at Retail on the web:
http://www.domainsatretail.com

Browser "Safe" Fonts

2005-02-26T18:44:00.000-08:00

By Shruti Gupta

Fonts make a big difference to the look and experience of the website. Usage of fonts requires sense of aesthetics and discretion. We have the liberty to use any font we want in an image but when we specify the fonts for the text on a web page, we need to ensure that we use only 'browser safe" fonts.

Browsers support TrueType fonts and all operating systems come with sets of standard TrueType fonts that have been preinstalled. These preinstalled TrueType fonts are what we can say are "browser safe" fonts.

My recommendation is to specify at least three fonts from the following list in the stylesheet. Out of the three fonts specified, make sure that at least one of them is available in Macintosh and one for Windows. Also, please remember that multi-word font names should be in quotes (example "Times New Roman").

So, here is a list of fonts that are preinstalled in Windows and Macintosh computers as they come out of the box.

Windows OS
•Arial (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Arial Black
•Comic Sans (Bold)
•Courier New (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Franklin Gothic Medium (Italic) – as of Windows XP
•Georgia (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Impact
•Lucida Console
•Lucida Sans Unicode
•Marlett
•MS Sans Serif – as of Windows XP
•Palatino Linotype (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Symbol
•Tahoma (Bold)
•Times New Roman (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Trebuchet (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Verdana (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Webdings

Mac OS
•American Typewriter (Bold)
•Andale Mono – Only installed in OS X if Classic is installed
•Apple Chancery
•Apple Symbols
•Arial (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Arial Black
•Arial Narrow (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Arial Rounded MT Bold
•Baskerville (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Big Caslon
•Brush Script MT
•Capitals - Only installed in OS X if Classic is installed
•Charcoal - Only installed in OS X if Classic is installed
•Chicago - Only installed in OS X if Classic is installed
•Cochin (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Comic Sans MS (Bold)
•Copperplate (Bold)
•Courier (Bold, Oblique, Bold Oblique) - Only installed in OS X if Classic is installed
•Courier New (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Didot (Bold, Italic)
•Futura (Sans-serif)
•Gadget - Only installed in OS X if Classic is installed
•Geneva
•Georgia (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Gill Sans (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Helvetica (Bold, Oblique, Bold Oblique)
•Helvetica Neue (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Herculanum
•Hoefler Text (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Impact
•Marker Felt
•Monaco
•New York - Only installed in OS X if Classic is installed
•Optima (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Palatino (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic) - Only installed in OS X if Classic is installed
•Papyrus
•Sand - Only installed in OS X if Classic is installed
•Skia
•Symbol
•Techno - Only installed in OS X if Classic is installed
•Textile - Only installed in OS X if Classic is installed
•Times (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Times New Roman (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Trebuchet (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Verdana (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
•Webdings - Only installed in OS X if Classic is installed
•Zapf Dingbats
•Zapfino

About the Author
Shruti Gupta works for Ecommerce Partners.net (http://www.ecommercepartners.net) - website design company based in New York. Her life revolves around developing search engine friendly websites. Email:info@ecommercepartners.net

Ten Steps to a useable website

2005-02-26T18:42:00.000-08:00

by Nigel Lew

10 Easy Steps to a Useable Website

Building a useable website can seem daunting. Here is a quick guideline to help you on your way.
It’s all about your content

To get your website listed appropriately the content of your website needs to be nested between the tags. This way it gets read by the search engines. Your content also needs to be unique and get your point across.What is it about your product or service that is better and different from your competitions. This is called your usp or unique selling proposition and should be conveyed clearly and immediately upon hitting the page.
Make effective use of your title and description tags

These are your two most important tags when it comes to referencing your page content. Meta keywords rarely have any impact what so ever on your pages listings.
Make sure content is well formatted

It is very important to break up your content with italics, bold text, bulleted lists, etc. Well formatted content makes your pages more accessible to visitors but the search engines also. Visitors scan across your page rather than read it so it makes sense to format your page so it can be browsed yet still convey your message.
Proper code

Having proper progamming in place is quite simply a must. Web standards have changed substantially over the years and it is important to make sure your pages validate both html and css. Think of it this way. How effective could you get your point across if you were talking swahili. Your code is no different. Why make it difficult for the search bots to index your content.
Do not use Front Page, Dreamweaver, or any other WYSIWYG editor.

While accurate, MS Front Page, for example, makes it easy for just about anyone to throw up a web page it doesn’t take W3C compliancy into account Hence the code it outputs is an absolute train wreck. This is terminal for your website as you need a strong code base (foundation) or your site will never stand up to the competitions.
Don’t design in Flash

Seemingly technical in nature or “neat” perhaps flash animation only serves to distract visitors from what they came to your site for in the first place, your product or service. Your services are what visitors are interested in not a blinking, noisy, website. Flash also creates major problems with getting it properly indexed. There is no way for the search engines to extract content from your website as it is all contained with in the swf. If you absolutely must have a flash page it is imparitive to offer an html version as well.
Easy on the eyes

Graphical elements play a huge role in a website design as well. You need to make sure you don’t have any extreme contrasts between colors and that you don’t use really bright colors as they are quite hard on the eyes. Your logo or brand should be clearly displayed on the home page and in more than one place.
Instill a sense of well being with ease of use

Make sure you have all legal documents in place such as privacy and return policies. It is also important to have all of your contact information pricing etc. displayed in a manner that conveys legitimacy. It should be very easy to contact you for any questions your visitors may have.
Include an opt-in newsletter

A great way to generate return customers is to offer an opt-in newsletter. This allows for direct marketing to people who you know are already interested in your product or service. What better way is there to keep customers abreast of new products or changes in the services you offer.
Use a trademark or tag line

In our case we trademarked the manipulated at symbol with the phrase bringing e-solutions to you, thereby effectively increasing the strength of our brand. We are now able to effectively convey who we are but give a good creative idea as to what we do.

About the Author
Nigel is the owner and E-Commerce Project Manager for Ultimatech Computer Consultancy located in Aspen Colorado.

Mobile Accessibility - Your website in the year 2005

2005-02-26T18:40:00.000-08:00

by Philip Wylie

Throughout 2004 the number of web enabled portable devices boomed. By “portable devices" I mean PDAs and smart phones. What does this mean for you? Well it depends whether or not you care about your visitors’ experience - you build your website for visitors so you really should!

Nokia, Vodafone, Microsoft and others have already applied to ICANN for the new TLD (Top Level Domain) .mobi. If the new TLD is accepted not only will this create hundreds more “domain for sale” sites but it will also help mobile users find optimized pages.

When a website optimized for a desktop computer is viewed on a small screen, the horizontal scrollbars are usually stretched by the header and footer, inevitably this means the textual content area is also stretched. "Fit to screen" on Pocket PCs shrinks images on the page and attempts to display the text on one screen without horizontal scrollbars.

There is no need to create a whole new site dedicated for mobile users, as not only would that be time consuming it is also unnecessary, due to mobile browsers being able to render most code without problems. Simply make your new site with a more logical, clean appearance. You should avoid relying on drop down menus for navigation as they use “mouse over” and JavaScript which doesn’t necessarily work.

When building your website I recommend that you use a top header with a horizontal menu underneath - preferably not made from images as the user may have selected not to view images. If you must use images for navigation remember to add alt tags. If your content area uses columns be sure that the main contents are on the left. The “fit to screen” function will move the text to the left hand side saving the visitor from having to scroll. The footer should contain a link to the top of the page in the form of an anchor tag. A link to your sitemap is important as it allows visitors to reach the information they want quickly.

Optimize your images as usual in GIF/JPEG formats. Testing your website is vital before you fully launch to the public, try viewing your site with a number of different devices. If the browser is able, use "fit to screen" and view the page without images. It doesn't have to be perfect just as long as you can easily navigate all your pages and view the content without scrolling.

About the Author
Philip Wylie is the CEO of PWnet, a company offering web solutions to all types of business. For more information visit www.pwnet.org.uk or to contact him email philip.wylie@pwnet.org.uk.

Designing for Content

2005-02-26T18:36:00.000-08:00

by Kelly Paal

We’ve all been told that a successful website has great content. The problem that I’ve discovered is what do you do with and how to you organize all this great content?
Below are some of the things that I’ve learned in the time I’ve had my own site. Now my particular situation is one where my site is constantly growing in content. I didn’t start my site with all sorts of content at my finger tips. So the tips below are from that perspective.

1. Keep your content concise and simple. Of course make sure that there is enough there for your customers but don’t write pages and pages of information. People are not going to sit there for an hour reading off of a computer screen, no matter how good the information is.

2. Keep your content relevant to your site. Do not start putting unrelated content on your site. It will be confusing and won’t help you draw customers into your site.

3. Organize, organize, and oh yes organize. Keep everything organized. I don’t know how many photography sites that I’ve been on have these huge lists of how to articles, hundreds of them which is great, but they are completely unorganized and I guess they expect you to scroll down through all these articles to find what you want. So organize your content. Make it easy to find things. Whether that’s through a search option or carefully organized subheadings. Make it easy for people to get what they need quickly.

4. My site has grown steadily but more than I ever expected and that created a problem that I didn’t foresee in the beginning. As you add content and I assume new pages be aware of where you place these pages in the grand scheme of your web design. Just don’t add new pages to the bottom of list of links. As the web site grows the list of links to your other pages could be quite long so keep some sort of pattern of organization so that as you add pages it will seem to fit in with the rest.

5. Out of date information. With all this content we’re all adding watch for out of date information. Remove content with information on technology that is not longer used. And cycle out old information that just isn’t read or was not very popular.

These are just a few things that I’ve learned in designing for content on my site.

If you have some specific questions please visit my Photography and Design Forum at: http://kellypaalphotography.com/v-web/bulletin/bb/index.php and post your question there.

Copyright 2005 Kelly Paal

About the Author
Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and internationally. She owns her own business Kelly Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com). She has an educational background in photography, business, and commercial art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography principles to her web design.

Is Your Web Site Too Hard?

2005-02-26T18:34:00.000-08:00

by Roger C. Parker

Is your website too hard?

Take the “Easy Test” to see if your website is as visitor friendly as it should be! Websites often fail to produce the desired results. This can be because visitors find them too hard to understand or navigate. Here are some potential usability problems to avoid.

1.Hard to find

Is your website easy to locate? Do you promote it everywhere, (i.e. business cards, invoices, envelopes, etc.) and is your site search engine friendly? Do you promote the benefits of visiting? Is your site address easy to remember and easy to type? Does your url contain easily misspelled words? Is it complicated by repeated letters, i.e. “theentity?” Are there numbers, which can cause confusion, i.e., “1shopping” or “oneshopping?”

2.Hard to engage

Do you make it easy for visitors to understand why they should read on?
You have only a few seconds to persuade visitors to begin reading your message. Unless your home page immediately provides an obvious “why buy from us?” benefit, visitors are likely to leave—wasting the time and money you spent attracting them to your site.

Home pages should begin with headline that immediately communicates you are familiar with your visitor’s problems and can help them achieve their goals.
Time-consuming animations, vapid “welcoming” statements, and “brag and boast” claims, usually turn visitors away.

3.Hard to decide

Do you make it easy for visitors to decide what to read next? The best web sites have a clear and immediately identifiable focus and sequence. Many home pages, however, offer so many navigation options that visitors are paralyzed and choose to leave.

Studies have shown that, if you offer grocery store visitors an opportunity to sample 6 jams, 30% of customers will eventually buy one. But, if you offer 16 samples, response drops to 3%!

4.Hard to return

Do you make it easy for visitors to register for your e-mail newsletter, so you can invite them to return? Unless you obtain your visitor’s e-mail address and permission to contact them in the future, you’ll probably never see them again! Many web sites offer visitors an opportunity to sign-up for their e-mail newsletter, however, only a few offer a meaningful incentive to sign-up. Without an incentive, without showing or describing the benefits of registering, why should visitors sign up? Most e-mail in-boxes are already filled with unread newsletters!

5.Hard to read

Is your message easy to read? Easy reading is more critical onscreen than in print. Problems that might be overlooked on paper are critical online.
• Long lines of text are difficult to read and make it easy for visitors to lose their place at the end of each line. Limit line length to 2/3’ds the width of the screen.
• Keep sentences and paragraphs short, and add extra space between paragraphs.
• Frequent subheads break body copy into short, bite-sized chunks. Each subhead “advertises” the following text and provides an additional point for visitors to begin reading your message.

6.Hard to print

Do you make it easy for visitors to print important articles and descriptions?
Links to “printer friendly pages,” correct line-and page breaks—add perceived value to your message and make it easier to share and read your message offline.
You don’t need to offer a printer-friendly link of every page, just key articles or important products or upcoming events.

7.Hard to share

Do you make it easy for visitors to pass-along important articles to others?
An “E-mail this to a friend or co-worker” link can expose your message to others who may join your opt-in e-mail list.

8.Hard to contact you

Do you make it easy for visitors to contact you? Do you include full contact information on every page, i.e. phone, fax, e-mail, and postal address? Avoid a single “contact us” link that only loads the visitor’s e-mail program. Give visitors multiple chances to call, fax, or mail a letter!

About the Author
Roger C. Parker knows the secrets to promoting your business one page at a time. Find out the simple way to keep in constant touch with your customers, while saving you time and money. Visit www.OnePageNewsletters.com for your three free reports.

Advanced web design principles

2005-02-26T18:30:00.000-08:00

by Zoran Makrevski

Home Page

Regardless of our connection speed, Internet users expect information to be readily obtainable, pages to download quickly and solutions at the click of the mouse.
As such, you should look at your home page as your Sale point. Have you explained succinctly what you are selling and included links to more detailed information?
Note that on the first page, you should try to pre-sell your potential customers on the benefits of your product or service.

If you are offering many products or services, place only the most attractive on the first page. Do not overload your first page. People might get confused if you provide too much information on one page.

That is one of the reasons why I always advise my customers not to use flash intros on their first page or at the very lease, allow them to skip through it. Today, internet users have less patience to wait and will move on quickly if pages take too long too load or if they have to “wait through” fancy openers that are all flash and no substance.

Site structure

Structure of your site should be dedicated to one goal only. Leading the visitor from your home page (pre-sale point) to different pages (sale points) on your site.

Structure of your site should be as simple as 1 – 2 – 3.

The 1 should be your home page, where you provide the basic information (read benefits) about your product or service.

The 2 should be a “more details” page where you will list and elaborate on benefits and prices of your product

And 3 should be your “add to cart” or “contact us” page.

Navigation structure

If you are serious about having your business on the Internet, do not experiment with the navigation of the site. Keep it simple and easy to use. If your pages are long, place a menu on the bottom of the page to save your users from scrolling to the top of the page to reach the menu.

Text

Do you believe that people read everything written on your page? They don’t. What they do is SCAN. They are scanning your page, looking for specific information regarding your company, what you have to offer, pricing and how to contact you. What you say and how you say it can mean the difference between a visitor and a sale.

For first timers, the look and content of our pages may evolve based on customer needs and comments. So… always, be sure to include search options in case visitors don’t find what they are looking for as well as readily obtainable contact information. Most importantly, make sure someone is available to answer questions. Never keep a potential first-time customer waiting for information.

In many cases, search option will keep the visitor on your site, giving you one more chance to convert the visitor into a customer.

Creating emphasis

Having in mind that users scan the pages, determining what to emphasize and creating emphasis on your pages is very important.

Eye catching details will help you to lead the visitor to the pages on your site that you want to be exposed, and it will increase your chances to convert the visitor into a customer.

Graphics

Graphics should emphasize the benefits of your products or service. Don’t use graphics unrelated to your product or service. Placing the graphic on the site just because you like the graphic, and you think that your site looks better with it is simply wrong. Use that space to explain to your visitors why they should buy from you and not from someone else.

Graphics should emphasize quality of your product or service. If you can’t find or create such a graphic, use text. It’s that simple.

Speed

Faster is better. There are still millions of people still using dial up for their connection. So try to make the download time for your site as short as possible. Remember, time is money and the longer it takes to download your website, the faster potential customers will go elsewhere for their business.

About the Author
Zoran Makrevski is the president of SEO.Goto.gr. We offer customized and affordable SEO Services.

3 Tips You Can Use Right Now to Improve Your Web sites Usability

2005-02-26T18:26:00.000-08:00

by Jason Mann

Studies done by Jakob Nielson the man touted as the, “King of usability” by Internet Magazine showed that people do not read on the web like they would normally read offline.

So what does this mean to you and why should you care?

Visitors to your web sites are in a rush, they want the information you promised and they want it NOW.

If they don’t get the information they want they will leave and this means you lose the sale, the opt-in or whatever action you want the visitor to take while at your site.

The following 3 tips will help you give your visitors what they want and in a way that will increase your web sites usability.

1. Concise Text

By keeping your paragraphs down to one single idea you can help speed up how your visitor absorbs your information.

For example, instead of:

“In today’s market place many people tend to become overwhelmed with the over hyped and highly charged writing that most web sites employ to gain visitors business. This causes people to be turned off by the sites language and ultimately they will click the back button on their browser and leave.”

Why not say,

“Today more than ever people are turned off by over hyped marketing language of websites they visit and because of this frustration they will end up leaving your site.”

See how that short, to the point paragraph says the same thing but quicker?

Go through your home page first and take out long, multiple thought paragraphs and edit them down to be precise. One idea per paragraph once you finish your thought (in 3-4 lines) start another paragraph.

2. Scannable Text

Web site users do not read online text. They scan it.

Use short bold text, for example in the form of a hyperlink, to make important information stick out from the page.

Bullet lists are an invaluable tool as well. Put your important sets of words in bullets. For example instead of,

“You will learn how to create your own web site, design pages that load faster, pick the right color scheme, and improve your sites navigation.”

Use this,

“You will learn:

How to create your own web site

Design pages that load faster

Pick the right color scheme

And improve your sites navigation.”

Use Subheadings through out the page.

As you go through your pages pick out the important points and put them in heading tags. Heading 2 and 3 work the best but the heading 1 tag will also work.

This will break the page up for the reader and they will be able to get the information they want simply by scanning your pages.

3. Be Objective

Far to many web sites are “me” oriented. In other words your site is about making money for you and you want your visitor to stay at your site and buy from you.

So what do you do?

You force them to stay at your site even if they are not interested in your product or service any longer.

Doing this only serves to damage your reputation and cause visitors to leave with a bad taste in their mouth.

Being objective means putting links to other related sites through out your web pages and allowing the visitor the free will to either stay at your site or leave and find the information they are looking for somewhere else.

In the end this is not a bad thing because you, as the site owner, can direct them to the sites you want them to go to.

However, seeding your pages with a bunch of recommendations to other sales sites is not the smartest way to do this.

Offer them free information along with sites that you receive compensation from as well.

This way you are being objective and offering your visitor valuable information they can use at the same time.

In Conclusion

Take a few days and walk through your web site and find the long paragraphs and make them more concise.

Bold important text, create subheadings for extremely important points and create more bullet lists where needed.

Finally, add more out bound links to your information and show them you are objective and care about their needs.

Internet users are getting tired of the hype and they are speaking out with their browser’s back button.

By taking the time to make these changes you will improve your sites usability and your visitors will thank you for it by doing business with you.

About the author
Jason Mann is a profitability consultant for online businesses who specializes in finding untapped profit areas and showing business owners how to increase their revenues by tapping these unseen resources. For more web business articles visit: http://www.majorprofitmargins.info

You Too Can Have an Amazing Website

2005-02-26T18:21:00.000-08:00

by Cal Hyslop

It is a well-known fact that a successful business depends greatly on how it is marketed. With an ever increasing dependence on the web, the use of a professional website is not only a necessity, but a priority. Although it is a common thought that only large businesses can have top-notch websites, with the tools available today what seemed impractical can now be a reality. Best of all, designing an extraordinary website can be done without hiring expensive web developers to create your site from scratch. Usually the first comment I get from my customers is, “I have the idea, but not the tools.” In this article, I will recommend which tools are the most helpful and where to find these tools so that you too can have an amazing website.

So you say, “I have the idea, but not the tools. What are these tools and where do I get them?” Let me answer that question with a question. Have you ever heard of web site templates? If not, they’re your answer to a professional website at a very reasonable price, usually around $60 to $70. A website template is a ready-made website design created for you to use as the foundation for quick and high-quality web development. There are thousands of templates available online so you are virtually guaranteed to find something that suits your design and format needs. It can be as easy as simply adding your text to the template or rearranging photos along with your text to produce the outcome you have been searching for.

Finding web site templates is easy, but be aware of the differences in template providers you will come across. Performing a Google or Yahoo search with the phrase “web site templates” will yield several vendor choices and not all of them offer the quality you demand. They all promise the best templates around, but that is obviously not the case. So, how do you find the right template vendor? First, visit some of the sites you come across and examine their templates. You will know you are on the right track if you answer “Yes” to the question, “Am I impressed with these templates?” Always trust your taste.

Next, explore how many templates the vendor offers and how often their database is updated. As a rule of thumb, the more they have the better they are. This helps assure you that your choice will be more unique than otherwise. If you choose a template from a vendor who only offers a few select quality templates then the chances are that a great deal of other customers have chosen that same template. You certainly don’t want a website that is practically identical to dozens of others online. You will also want a vendor who updates their site on a regular basis. Weekly updates are good, but daily updates are even better. This guarantees that they will have fresh templates on a regular basis for you to choose from.

Finally, you want to make sure that your template is editable. This means that your template will come with the appropriate files (PSD, HTML, SWF, and FLA) that will allow you to make the necessary changes to your template. Ask you vendor before making your selection. Most templates come with these files, but it is better to be safe than sorry. You should be able to download your selection immediately or your vendor will provide a link to do so.

Great! Now you have a really impressive template and can’t wait to make the changes that will get you a completed website that blows away your competition. Well, you’re halfway there. You have one more important choice to make. Who will do the editing? You will either have someone internally run with the project or you can hire someone and outsource the job. If you decide to handle things internally make sure you have the necessary software to edit your files and someone who is somewhat familiar with how to do the editing. This is what your template vendor probably didn’t tell you. Certainly it isn’t as easy as purchasing a template and plugging in text. If it were then there wouldn’t be a market for web design and development companies. If you’re confident about handling it yourself then great, but be careful. You might find yourself investing a lot of time and money trying to get your desired results.

Your alternate choice, hiring a development firm, will almost certainly get your site looking and functioning the way you want it, but for a fee, of course. It is easy to find a development firm to handle your needs and you can find several online. Simply search with the keyphrase “web site design”. Call or email a few of them explaining your situation and needs and ask for a quote to perform the editing for you. Depending on the amount of editing you will require you should receive price quotes in the $500 -$1500 range. This is a very reasonable price to pay for a professional website. Most likely, you will be glad you did.

About the Author

I have a background in business and technology with a Masters in Business Administration and am an owner of a website design firm located in Houston, Texas. The mission of my company, WebChrysalis, is to help individuals and businesses look like a million dollars online through the use of web templates and expert design.