| ||
| ||
|
Website Development | |
| Domain Names | E Books | Email Marketing | Ezine Marketing | |||
| Internet Marketing | Marketing | PPC Advertising | SEO | |||
| Traffic Building | Web Design | Web Development | Web Hosting | |||
| ||||||
|
| ||||
|
Planning A Usable Website: A Three-step Guide
A website is like an information flow, with you as the provider and your site visitors as the receivers of the information. If you don't plan your website with this in mind right from the start, you could find yourself with a brand new website that solves all your immediate needs... but not those of your site visitors. Clicking away from your website has never been easier for Internet users. There are about 35 million websites competing with yours on the Internet (source: http://www.zooknic.com/Domains/counts.html). Search engine results are becoming better and better and Internet connection speeds faster and faster - finding one of your competitors' websites is now very quick and very easy. 1. Work out your site visitors' immediate needs Your website has to provide information that fulfils the immediate needs of your site visitors. This is the fundamental principle behind usable website design, so let's repeat it one more time: Your website has to provide information that fulfils the immediate needs of your site visitors. OK, now we've got that straight, we come up against a problem: Your goals for the website are probably different to the immediate needs of your site visitors. Oh dear. Let's illustrate this problem, and its solution, with the example of a web design company's website. Their immediate goal is to get visitors to contact them and ultimately commission them to do some web development work. Their site visitors are probably interested in getting web development work done (if not, why are they on this website?), but it's unlikely that this is their immediate need when they arrive at the website. The immediate needs of the site visitors' are probably to answer questions like: - Can I trust them? - Are they any good at what they do? - Will they get the job done? Before the website begins to sell to its site visitors, it has to answer their questions and put their fears to rest. This is fundamentally important, so one more time: Before the website begins to sell to its site visitors, it has to answer their questions and put their fears to rest. In the case of this web design company, they could provide a portfolio, client testimonials etc. Can you think of any other information they should offer? 2. Create an information flow Now we've worked out what our site visitors' immediate needs are, we need to create an information flow, a path (or paths) that your site visitors will traverse whilst on your website. The path(s) will initially address their concerns and needs and will gradually take them towards completing your goal for them. To create this plan we'll need to: - Identify the different groups of people who'll use your website - Work out what you want each of these groups to achieve on your website - Identify the information you'll need to provide for them to achieve this (and in what order) - Work out what might put them off achieving this - Identify the information you'll need to provide to prevent them being put off From this, you'll be able to create a list of website pages and a rough idea of how they might flow together. You'll then be able to work out exactly what pages to include on the website and how to group these pages together. Bear in mind though, some users will need more information than others, so you'll always need to provide them with a choice of continuing on the information flow or jumping off so that they can achieve the goal you've set for them. Going back to the website of the web design company, an information flow that their site visitors might go on could look something like this: 1. Homepage The web design company's ultimate goal is for site visitors to contact them and request their services. Wherever users are in this flow, they must be able to easily and immediately jump straight to the contact page at any point. You've probably already seen this in action on websites. You arrive at the homepage and there are two or three prominent links (often in the form of boxes) telling you some basic information and requesting that you click on them to take you into some other part of the website. You go to that page on the website, read the information and then choose where to go next. And this keeps going on, until you either quit or complete the desired goal of the website. So, the web design company's homepage might look something like what you see at http://www.webcredible.co.uk/images/plan-usable.gif. The three boxes in the middle answer some immediate questions that users may have and proactively address their concerns. The contact us button on the top-left can remain in that position on every page, so users always have the opportunity to jump to the contact page. 3. Usability testing Once the website plan has been created, it's time to test it. This is the most important usability test that needs to be done and the one that will save you the most time and money in the long run. Every £1 invested in making your website easy-to-use returns £10 to £100 (source:http://www-3.ibm.com/ibm/easy/eou_ext.nsf/Publish/23/). If you don't do any usability testing you may discover that the structure of the website doesn't make sense once the website's up and running. This can and has happened and it leaves you with two choices: redesign the website or make a new website - neither are attractive options. The most common objections to doing usability testing are: - It's too expensive! - It'll take too much time! - I don't know how to do it! Wrong, wrong, and wrong! Usability testing, especially at this early stage, is incredibly cheap, quick, informal and easy to do. You just need to show five people the plan/site map of the website and ask them: - What's the point of this website? - If you were on this homepage, where you would click? And where after that? - Is it what you need? That's it! As long as these five people roughly fit into your user profile everything should be fine. It's been shown that using five people for a usability test will uncover 85% of the usability issues of the website (source:http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000319.html). This article was written by Trenton Moss. He's crazy about web usability and accessibility - so crazy that he went and started his own web usability and accessibility consultancy ( Webcredible - http://www.webcredible.co.uk ) to help make the Internet a better place for everyone. They offer fantastic accessibility & CSS support packages, which you can read all about at http://www.webcredible.co.uk/support .
MORE RESOURCES:
Web-Development - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
WYSIWYG Versus Coding: HTML With A Purpose After years of working with entrepreneurs who developed their first web site using an image-based editor, the new world of internet marketing has placed a stronger emphasis on web development that conforms to technical concerns such as search engine optimization and multi-browser compatibility.Wigging OutWYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get, pronounced "whizzy wig") web site editing programs can allow anyone to develop rich, full-feature web sites without a working knowledge of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). How to Make Your Own Free Website in 8.5 Minutes or Less Designing and creating your own website does not have to be a laborious effort that takes weeks to complete. Instead, in less than 9 minutes you can have your web site designed and up and running as long as you have a host located and know what you want to upload to your web page. How to Listen on the Web When building a relationship, listening is more important than talking.A website can reveal a great deal about your business, even answer questions about whom you have done work for in the past. Your Biggest Mistake When You Create a Website? --------------------------------Why Should You Create a website?--------------------------------A. What do you want when you create a website?B. 4 Marketing Tips for Resourceful Webmasters! The internet is a sea of knowledge. Getting your information to 'float' by the right audience can be like finding that one special grain of sand on the seashore. MySQL Database Handling in PHP Most interactive websites nowadays require data to be presented dynamically and interactively based on input from the user. For example, a customer may need to log into a retail website to check his purchasing history. Building a Web Site Requires the Right Software to Eliminate Headaches and Keep Money in Your Pocket When most people build a web site, they think one simple thing. "If I build it, they will come". Trust Us! Sending Credible Messages A company must earn and keep trust or sales don't happen. Imagine that last Sunday, while you were reading the paper, you saw an ad for a great deal on a digital camera. How To Evaluate Your Web Sites Performance Setting up a website is the very first step of an Internet marketing campaign, and the success or failure of your site depends greatly on how specifically you have defined your web site goals.If you don't know what you want your site to accomplish, it will most likely fail to accomplish anything. Five Steps to Create Your Software Product with Outsourcing Many executives and investors are skeptical that software products can be developed using outsourcing. Even more skepticism is expressed at the idea of outsourcing version 1. From Concept to Website You've decided to create a website to market your products or services. More and more people start their information searches online, so having a website is the logical next step. Optimal Website Design Optimal website design is the art of logical navigation.It will offer consistency while providing useful, quality information that is attractive to the eye and easy to understand. Website Globalization Globalize Your WebsiteThe Internet has unlocked a wide array of markets and knocked down barriers that previously prevented merchants from marketing their products on a global scale. There are a number of ways to 'globalize' a website and broaden a businesses general appeal to an international audience. Beautiful Web Sites Seldom Make More Sales Designing an E-commerce Web site is not as simple as having a "pretty" site that is a pleasure to visit. While it is important to have an attractive site, as much thought must be given to functionality as to appearance. Websites for Writers - Why You Need One and How to Get Started Today It may seem like the publishing industry's equivalent of Beanie Baby madness- everyone is talking about writer's websites. Freelancers and authors everywhere are jumping on the bandwagon, publishing sites to promote themselves and their work. Let Your Customers Redesign Your Website! When you purchase a new item from a Yahoo! Store, you are asked if you'd like to provide feedback on the transaction. About two weeks after the initial purchase, an email from Yahoo! Stores shows up, asking you to provide feedback for the vendor. Dreamweaver 8 Preview August 8 2005, Macromedia announced a release of Studio 8. Based on the feedback of previous users, Macromedia made it's already very powerful software even better. Product Promoting: Getting The Response When you publish a content site there are times when affiliate products are not the only products you want to recommend.Situations when you'll find you'll want to promote a non-affiliate businesses' product(s). PHP & Account Activation When a user signs up at your website, you may want to verify their email address so you aren't getting bogus accounts in your database. A few lines of code can send an email to the address specified, containing a welcome greeting and link to activate their account. 9 Keys to an Effective Website Many small companies choose not to invest in a professionally designed website, although a well-designed Web site may raise the company's level of professionalism and exposure - AND drive business and sales!Make sure your website is working for you with the following characteristics:Usability enables your users to get the most out of your site. This means that the site's navigation is consistent, clear and easy to follow; forms and links are in working order; and the information on the site is current and answers incoming clients' potential questions.
|
| Domain Names | E Books | Email Marketing | Ezine Marketing | |
| Internet Marketing | Marketing | PPC Advertising | SEO | |
| Traffic Building | Web Design | Web Development | Web Hosting |
|
Home | Site Map | 1000 Free
Places for Ads! | Free
Classified Ads | Free-For-All
Ads | Reciprocal
Links | Search
Engines | |
| Copyright © 2006-2007. The Highland Marketing Group. All Rights Reserved. |
|
| ||
|