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.