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We
"Design" your site with more than aesthetics in mind! Creating the
"WOW factor" or "POP" with your design grabs a user attention but there
are eight (8) other considerations that make your site "User Friendly"
and productive. Since
we have established that we measure the performance of your site with
Google Analytics it time to focus on usability. Usability, as it
relates to websites, is the art and science of building a website that
are efficient, easy to use, meet expectations, most importantly, help
people achieve their objective. If you can make the visitors job easier
- You Win! There are seven (7) factors in making your website more usable: Whether
reading a book, i-pad or your website visitors read left-to-right and
top-to-bottom. Visitors, when they first land on your site, will look
first to the top left-hand corner of the website and work their way
across the header (maybe that is why google and other advertisers charge
so much for header image advertising), then down the left and side and
graduating to the main content of the site in the center of the page.
Even though some designers can offer a WOW factor that deviates from
this ritualistic habit of visitors it is important to stay as close to
this design philosophy as possible. Can
you visitor understand what you have to offer in 8 seconds? This time
may vary based on many factors but as a general rule it is important,
studies have shown, to capture a "new" visitors interest in (approx.) 8
seconds. Your website should answer: Who we are?, What we do?, and Who
we do it for? on the first page using tag-lines, headers and images. Even
though recent studies have shown this is not as critical as it once was
it is still important. The fold is what appears on a visitors screen
when they visit your website. This varies based on visitors web
settings, internet browsers, etc... so make sure to look at your site on
other computers to see where the content you have prepared is showing
up. If possible make sure your content appears above the fold so that
when visitors land on your website they get your tag-line, phone number,
powerful images and the initial content of your site. As
the web grows more powerful in it's search capabilities, specific pages
of your website are likely to show up other than your home page. This
makes it important to have consistency throughout your website so as to
orient visitors to your website and keep them there. Here are five (5)
factors that help maintain visitor orientation: No
one purposely insert roadblocks on their website but we all have them
on our website. Whether it is asking to many questions on a form,
making purchasing a product to difficult, finding products or anything
of the like it is important to keep in mind that if you can't get to it
in 3 - 5 clicks something needs to be removed or if it takes more than a
few seconds to do you are going to loose the visitor(s) and potentially
the sale. When we go through your site we want to make it easy to do
business with you and easy to find information. Make
reading your website quick, easy and specific. As clients land on your
website and scower the pages they need to be able to "get to the
point". There are three (3) things we can do to improve the readability
of your website: Font Size - minimum of size 11 Font and no crazy, artistic fonts. Make your font choice consistent with what people read everyday. Contrast
- Black background with white font or vice versa is safe and what
people are used to reading. This is one of those situations that it is
better to stick with what has worked for more than a hundred years. Lexington, SC is our home and where we spend the most time developing our client's businesses. Give a call for a"Free Estimate" if your are in the southeast, Columbia, SC or any of the surrounding areas. |
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