Your Website Is Not Yours ... It Is Your Visitors

Image courtesy of Vlado at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

After writing the first few posts here about how appearance and design influence a visitor’s reaction to your website, it strikes me that I would be amiss not to mention a very important point: the website is not yours, it’s your visitors’.

Yes, you are the website’s owner with all the legal, financial, and content responsibilities that go with it. Yet, in a sense, a website is similar to a painting, a sculpture, a piece of literature or any other work of art that’s presented to the world’s populace. Fair or not, web users decide if the site is any good. Public opinion is what matters, not yours.

Unlike a work of art, however, which may gain appreciation as people’s perceptions change, a website’s approval is only attained if it provides immediate gratification to the user’s needs. This means the visitor can find the information they seek easily and recognizes through the appearance and design that the site is worthy of their trust. Researchers in Canada published a study in the journal, Behavior & Information Technology, that concluded people form opinions about a webpage after only 50 milliseconds – giving website developers and owners extremely little time to make a good first impression. Once that website is published, control of it is placed in the hands of those doing the clicking or finger-tapping on the screen.  They own what they want to see and do, which might be different than your intent.

So, what can you do about it?

One thing you can do about it is to recognize that a design that looks good to you may not necessarily look good to your target audience. Seriously consider a trained designer’s opinion about color combinations, logo design, eye-flow, and seemingly minute details that really make a huge difference in appearance and design.

Website Appearance (Design) and Development

I think it’s also worth making the distinction now between what is considered appearance/design and what qualifies as development when talking about websites. Appearance generally refers to the overall look and feel of the website. Web design concerns itself with presenting good content with imagery through color usage and graphics that is attractive to the target audience. Web development centers efforts on functionality and usability of the website so that users can easily navigate through menus to find information. Carefully crafted goal funnels (the paths you want visitors to take to complete an action – like making a purchase, joining a group, or downloading something) enable visitors to use the website in the manner in which you want them to. Being an enabler is usually a bad thing, but not when it concerns websites.

Blending appearance and design with web development is an art form itself. When it’s done right, your visitors’ appreciation will surface as you allow them to take ownership of your website.

For More Info

Learn more now about analyzing a website by briefing this Website User Experience Analysis list. You can always also take advantage of Act One’s FREE 5-Step Website Analysis to help get you started.

Website Analysis: How Appearance Affects User Experience - Part 2

This is the third in a series of posts about website analysis. Here, the focus is on how to look at your website to evaluate your visitor’s experience.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In Part 1 of this post, we briefly looked at how three items – load time, clarity of the website or company purpose, and design – affect user experience. Other details to consider include the following: 

• Is it easy to see what’s most important? 
• Does it load fast/look good on a smartphone? 
• Is the contact info easy to find? 
• Does the website have a favicon?

Easy to See What is Important – Size, emphasis, color, and placement all play a role in website design to highlight the important areas of your pages. A good design guides the visitor’s eyes naturally. Making them work to find the important parts of your website may lead to site abandonment.

Loads Fast/Looks Good on Smartphones (and other hand-held devices) – According to Keynote Competitive Research, an industry analyst, two-thirds of all smartphone users expected a mobile site to load in less than four seconds. Nearly half of these users also complained about websites that are not optimized for smartphones (a simpler, easy-to-read version, not just a shrunken copy of the regular website). The message is clear: users want website that load quickly and are configured for these devices.

Contact Info Easy to Find – The phrase, “It’s on the internet, so it must be true,” attests that not all organizations, people, and information are legitimate. An easy-to-find “Contact” page that includes your company address, email, phone number and map (and any other necessary contact information) helps build trust with the site visitor.

Favicon Present – A favicon (short for favorite icon) is a tiny image that appears left of the website address in browser windows. This item is important as web browsers now give people the ability to bookmark their favorite websites, identified simply by the icon, to their browser.  

Summary

Because the first impression people have of your website is its appearance, it’s crucial to get it right for your target audience. Load time, purpose, design, enabling an easy recognition of chief material, smartphone appearance, contact info, and having a favicon present all influence your site visitors experience. Your website users have a favorable experience when your site is well designed and they can find what they want easily. When you consistently give your users a favorable website experience, this translates into an organization that measurably meets its goals.

For More Info

Learn more now about analyzing a website by viewing the Website User Experience Assessment found on this page and also by taking advantage of Act One’s FREE 5-Step Website Analysis to help get you started.

Website Analysis: How Appearance Affects User Experience – Part 1

This is the second in a series of posts about website analysis. Here, the focus is on how to look at your website to evaluate your visitor’s experience.

Slow-loading sites are abandoned quickly.

The previous post, “Website Analysis: The First Step is to Know the Goals,” stressed the importance of  understanding both your business and website goals. The next step is to examine how well your site communicates these objectives. For example, if your site is for a university, objectives might be to enable students to find a course, make registration easy, and obtain financial aid information. If you have a need for a company intranet then locating people readily is unquestionably a necessity. A site's appearance should address visitors' needs to find information easily; design is one of the major factors that influences this need. When looking at your website, try to see it through the eyes of visitors, a.k.a. your prospects.

• Is the load time fast or slow?
• Is the company or website purpose clear?
• Does the design look professional or amateurish?

Load Time – Nobody likes waiting. A recent study notes that the average time people will wait for a website to load is six seconds before abandoning it. Three seconds or less is the goal.

Purpose – Since visitors want to know what your business is all about quickly, it is important to establish a visual identity (your logo) and put it in a location that is easily seen. A descriptive line, placed on or near the logo, contributes mightily to telling visitors what you do and can help search engine optimization (SEO).

Design – Your website must reflect your brand and should be designed in a style that appeals to your target audience. The colors, imagery, and fonts should entice them to stay on the pages and demonstrate, in a millisecond, that your organization is worthy of their consideration. Good website design lets visitors find your content areas effortlessly and presents that content in an easy to read format. You may also want to take into consideration that your site may need to be accessible to people with disabilities. All of this takes time to research, develop, and test. Oh, and unless it’s appropriate for your industry, keep the cute pictures of Fido off of your website and limit them to your Facebook page like we do!

Summary

Load time, purpose, and design influence your site visitors’ experience right from the get-go, and you better show them how to get what they want immediately or they’ll bounce right out of your site onto the next. It may be ironic, but in order to help your visitors find what they want quickly, it’s imperative for you to devote plenty of time on your website’s appearance and design.

 

Part 2 of this post will discuss four other items to consider about website appearance and design: the ease to see important info, appearance on smartphones, easy to find contact info, and a favicon.

For More Info

Learn more now about analyzing a website by viewing the Website User Experience Assessment found on this page and also by taking advantage of Act One’s FREE 5-Step Website Analysis to help get you started.