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.