The Elements of Effective Website Design – Part 1

One of the most frequently stated explanations for the dot-com craze was, "The Internet changes everything!" Old-school ideas such as price to earnings ratio and value propositions were early casualties. Good website design was another.

Surfers of the Web encountered an endless parade of sites that assaulted their senses, took 20 minutes to load, violated every rule of good graphic design, had no discernible purpose, and then crashed their computers.

Today, people say, "The Internet has changed a few things, I guess." In an article on May 11, 2003, the New York Times noted that searching and shopping were the two things succeeding commercially on the Web, and asked plaintively: "Is that what the digital revolution has come to?"

Actually, there's more to it than that. The same article states that e-commerce among U.S. businesses will reach $2.4 trillion this year. That's trillion. Not a small figure. Much of that b2b e-commerce — and virtually all b2c shopping — takes place through company websites.

Your Website Image

For potential customers, potential business partners, investors, job-seekers, and hundreds of other people you know nothing about, your website is their first impression of what you do and how well you do it. What do they see? Do they understand right away what you have to offer? Does the graphic design make them say "cool!"? Does the site draw them in and take them on pleasant explorations, or do they get lost and frustrated, and leave?

Since this is the first place someone will go to find out about your company, you can't afford not to have an impressive website.

The Homepage

The homepage is the entrance to your site, and if it is good, visitors will want to explore further. First, the homepage must clearly present what your company's purpose is. (For a good example of this, check out www.tggallagher.com*) If a visitor can't tell what your company does by looking at the homepage, the page needs fixing.

The homepage must be graphically attractive, to get visitors to stay. It should strongly establish your brand…and the overall graphical scheme and branding should be carried consistently through the rest of the site. (See www.sullivancreative.com* as an example.)

Your homepage should also make clear what the user can do on the rest of the site. The Internet is a supremely interactive medium, and users will expect to "click around" on your site to find things. Users are guided by effective interfaces and navigation (see next issue), but the first step is for you to decide what you actually want visitors to do. Then make sure these opportunities are very clear on the homepage. (For a good example, see www.nhhumane.org*)

Interfaces

The homepage is one example of an interface, a page that presents information and also offers opportunities for activity by visitors. Interface design has been analyzed by usability studies, which ask "How easy and intuitive is this application to use?"

These studies have found, for example, that little tiny buttons, or complicated graphics that act like buttons but look like something else, may have graphic value but drive users away. On the other hand, rollovers — even just buttons that lights up when you roll over them — contribute to usability, because they immediately show that there's something to do there.

To be usable, a site should be simple. (www.google.com takes this idea about as far as it can go.) Remember, people don't look at a web page for very long. If they can't figure it out, they'll move on. Good graphic design can make your site look attractive, clean and functional, and at the same time reinforce your marketing message.

Good writing is a subject that is often overlooked in discussions of website design. If your homepage includes a couple of sentences describing your company, make sure they are simple, clear, and well written, preferably by a professional. Even your tabs and buttons have to be "written." Do you want a button to say "Our company," "People," "The team," or "Merry pranksters"?

Usable sites take advantage of Internet conventions that have evolved, such as the blue-type-plus-underline convention for Web links, the main category buttons down the left-hand side of the screen, and the "file folder" tabs that bring successive folders to the front of the pile.

Surfing the Web

If you go to a store to buy something, you'll stand in line for awhile even if the clerk is an inept fumblefingers, because you have invested time, effort and gasoline in the trip. Not true for the Web. People don't linger on websites unless there's something there for them: interesting graphics, an appealing interface, lively writing, easy navigation and some kind of payoff on every page. Your visitors will stay only if you take good care of them.

Next Issue: Website Navigation

* These sites were designed by Sullivan Creative.

© 2003 Sullivan Creative

Web Tips

Keep it fast. Users don't stick around for sites that take too long to download. Your Web developer will work with you to keep files small. If your users will be logging on from home, remember that many of them still have 56K dial-up modems.

Don't bother with a splash page. These "title pages," often with moving graphics, that people used to put up in front of the actual site are totally out-of-date. Users want you to cut to the chase (the homepage) — they're here for a purpose.

Flash is useful, in moderation. This popular web animation tool can offer fluid, attention-grabbing, and elegant ways to treat navigation, pull-down menus, and page elements to which you want to draw peoples' attention. Large Flash animations are bandwidth hogs, and long ones will make people click elsewhere.

Pop-up ads are despised by most users. One study measuring eyeball movement found that users actually reflexively looked away from any pop-up, no matter what it contained. The overuse of this technique for Web advertising has turned it into a 'must avoid' feature.

Getting information from users is also a good idea, except that users don't want to give it. If you want to collect user information, keep it to the necessary minimum, and be careful of asking questions that may be seen as intrusive. Note that if you have a good offer, you can get a lot more information.

News items about your company — new contracts, awards, staff members giving speeches or seminars — are a good site feature, and give substance to marketing claims. A common problem is that companies don't get around to updating news items. This sends the message: "nothing new here since last April."

Test, test, test. Holding a focus group before you design the site can give you valuable direction. A usability test at an early stage of development can reveal snags and pitfalls in your navigation and interface. And leave plenty of time in your schedule for button-by-button debugging before the site goes live.

Break the rules. Any successful site is likely to violate at least one of the guidelines set forth here. Be creative — just don't alienate your visitors.

Resources

Two books were consulted in developing this article. Don't Make Me Think, by Steve Krug, and Web Navigation, by Jennifer Fleming (out of print), are both very good overviews of the principles of effective website design.

Jakob Nielsen and Jared Spoole are two godfathers of website usability theory, and their websites — www.useit.com (Nielsen) and www.uie.com (Spoole) offer a wealth of information, some of it free.

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