Some Design Tips

• White space is your friend. Just like in printed brochures, your Web site will look much better with a good balance of graphics, text and white space. Use the white space to better define and draw attention to your site's navigation system. Not only will your site look better, it will also load faster. One of your goals in designing your site is to make the experience a good one for your visitors. If you site is slower to load than molasses in Alaska then your potential customers will become someone else's potential customers! Not everyone has broad band Internet access -- in fact a pretty small percentage do (currently about 30% for 2001 according to Media Metrix) -- so keep your pages fast and lean.
• Who you are and what you do. It should be immediately obvious on your home page what your company does, and what the visitors can find on your site. Your navigation structure is critical. Don't make your visitors have to think about how they might find something -- make it blatantly obvious. In fact, some say you should never have anyone more than one click away from being able to purchase something (assuming, of course, you're selling products on your site).
• Give them what they need. Don't make your site too text-heavy. Keep it short, bulleted and to the point. People visiting your site won't read long passages of text ("pot, meet the kettle" -- I know, but our site has a different purpose!). It's true, but -- and this is another pretty big but -- you have to provide enough information for them to make a decision right then, or else you chance losing the sale to a site that does. For instance, if you're selling relatively complicated products that have a lot of specifications to compare, make it easy on your shoppers. Include links to all of the relative information they might need. The "Links" to more information are very important. Browsers (and I mean the shoppers not their Web software) don't want to wait on slow loading pages that are full of every scrap of information you have about a product. They want to see the general product description and be able to click a link to go to the meat of the subject. The same goes for product photos. Keep thumbnail size photos on the primary product description page, but have them linked to a larger image so if the shopper wants to see the fine crafted detail of the piece then they can click and see it in all its glory. Another helpful addition that may keep shoppers on your site as opposed to your competitor's, can be tables that compare specs from your products with those of competing products so you can show how your products are better and have more features. Or, if you have a lot of similar products that vary in certain areas, create a table comparing your own products. You can also include interactive tools that compare products the shopper has selected from your own product line by clicking a check box next to the item, and then clicking on a "compare" button. A table then comes up that compares those items side by side.
• The good, the bad, and the ugly. A good site can look great, a bad site can look great, and an ugly site can still be great. No matter how nice your site looks, if it's difficult to navigate, or if you don't know exactly what the site is about when you go there then you're still missing the boat -- and tossing a lot of money off the pier while your watching it sail away! The first thing you have to think about is the site's purpose and function -- not the cool graphics, or the colors, or the flash animations. In fact, those sites who start with a fancy animation that makes dial-up visitors bang their heads on their monitors while they wait for it to load really stomp on my last good nerve. (Yes, I still "dial-up.") Always -- let me stress this -- ALWAYS have a very obvious "SKIP THIS INTRO" button that people can click to get past your animation. Another unnecessary step many sites force their visitors to take is having a lead-in to their home page. There will be a page with the company logo on it and an "ENTER SITE HERE" button. Why? I don't know, but they get on my nerves too. Don't do it. Take your visitors directly to what they want to see -- your content. (Remember, many of them are surfing on company time and they have to speedy about it if they don't want to get caught!) The layout of your pages, which you hopefully have already drawn out and labeled, will help you (or your designer) determine the best design for your site. It's hard to come up with a design if you don't already have an idea of the number of category pages, types of site functions, etc. So, as I've mentioned in other sessions of this workshop, plan it out FIRST so your site has a better chance of being both good AND aesthetically pleasing.
• Real live people, or at least an address. Make sure visitors to your site can find you in the real world when they need to. Even if your business is only a 'cyber' business you should still have a physical address or PO box, and a phone number where someone can contact you if they have a question. Not only will it give those who are leery of online purchasing a way to still place an order, it will also give them a higher comfort level that your business is legitimate.
• Finally, if you want people to visit your site, jump ahead to our "Promotion" workshop and read about optimizing your pages for search engines. It's much easier to incorporate the information search engines look for into your pages as you design them rather than having to go back after the fact and add the information in.