Salt? Blindfold? Hope For The Best?

A site cannot sell unless the owner knows what it's selling and to whom.

As the Web gets more competitive the standard Web Design approach of putting on a blindfold, spinning around three times and throwing salt over one's shoulder no longer works.

The Tea Leaves Are Dark - Ah, I See A Customer!

Who are you selling to?

A casual web user? A business-to-business purchaser? Mr. Bloggs, who has no time and three screaming kids biting at his knees? Josephine Smith, who will only give her credit card details over the phone because she doesn't trust the internet? Pamela, who spends all her time dreaming about holidays and who wants to REVEL in that dream? Dave, who needs part number XYZ1886ab NOW!? Sandra, who needs to know that you know your stuff and is checking out who you link to? Steve, who's researching his next car purchase and needs facts to persuade his other half?

You're Selling Emotions!

What !!? ?

How can emotions be sold?

Look at car adverts and how they sell reliability, status, sex appeal and hope.

My Brand, My Brand, My Kingdom For My Brand!

In an age of technological commoditisation your brand will become one of your greatest assets.

So get a brand name and get that domain name - in fact, don't commit to the brand name until you own the domain name, and then get the .com   .net   .org and country level extensions (e.g. .co.uk.) as a bare minimum. They might come in useful!

If you want to learn about domaineering (which is a multi-million pound business) then the best place to start is with Frank Schilling's blog at SevenMile.com. Although he posts infrequently there's a wealth of information there - check out the 'Ask Frank a question' page and also the links in the sidebar to the sites that he visits.

If you're going to buy domain names I currently recommend that you buy them from Moniker (a leader within the industy, innovative and puts great emphasis on security). If you're searching for domain names use the free Domain Name Analyzer (and upgrade to the paid version when you get a few pennies). Domain Name Analyzer avoids third party websites that let you search for domain names. Although such websites are theoretically honest it would be all too easy for unscrupulous owners or employees to register good names that you happened to be checking out. Read around.   :-)

I currently host with Hosting Matters who have proved themselves reliable and extremely fast and efficient when it comes to support issues. You get exactly what you pay for and on the web reliability is at a premium.

What's the Point Of Your Site?

Does your site have a purpose ?

For example, do you want to make money?

It's not enough - you need to know HOW your site is going to make money. What benefit does it offer your users? What role will your site play in your overall business strategy?

Which Road To Choose?

Will your site be information-rich for customers to browse through in the research phase of the buying cycle?

Will your products be sold directly from your site?

Will your site be promoting an affiliate programme?

Will you be offering a reassuring after-sales service for people who've bought from you in your offline store?

Will you be promoting an e-mail newsletter in order to foster a long-term  relationship with potential customers?

Will you be providing a service that a bricks and mortar store cannot? (Rail timetables, breaking news, a contact point for international users?)

Will you be encouraging user-generated content   (Amazon, E-bay) that will enhance the value of the products you're selling?

There are many ways to attract customers or enhance their experiences in order to create sales or other conversions (leads, sign-ups, participation, mind share). When you know the purpose of your site and what you're selling, have an idea of the types of customers you're selling to and what direction your company is headed in, then the actual design process can begin.

Your Website Needs an Architect

Houses are designed by architects.

Websites should be built using the principles of Information Architecture.

As with building architecture, Information Architecture requires clarity about the purpose of the site (the needs of the customers and the needs of the business), how the site fits in with its environment (customers who have visited similar sites will have certain expectations), visitor flow around the site (as much as this can be predicted), aesthetics, usability, navigation and construction and maintenance costs.

At its simplest, Information Arhitecture describes how pages are connected together in such a way that the site makes sense to its users and to the website owner.

You can read the simple information architecture analysis that I did for Alchemweb  here

If Your Website Was A Person, Would You Trust Her?

Once the Information Architecture has been drawn up it's time to create a rough sketch of the Home page and the inner pages (using a graphics programme).

The Home page has a lot of tasks to do - it has to have an identity, say clearly what the purpose of the site is, establish trust and credibility and tempt visitors further into the site.

Inner pages also have tasks. Each inner page will usually have a primary task (for example selling, informing, reassuring, establishing credibility, providing linkbait) and should be focussed on that task.

A site without focus may indicate a business without focus. How many sites have you seen where the inner pages are just a jumble of information and Adsense? What message does that send to potential customers?

Inner pages should stick with a consistent navigation so that users get their bearings quickly and are confident that they're still in the site.

Generally speaking the only people really interested in the site's graphics are the website owner and the graphics designer. There are lots of highly successful sites out there with minimal graphics - think E-Bay, Amazon, Friends Reunited and Google.

In fact according to this eye-tracking research graphics can act like barriers to the movement of the eye over a page, rather like boulders impeding water in a stream. Hiding your conversion trigger ('Click here!') in the middle of an image (a 'boulder') might not always be a Good Thing (as the stream of people rushes by ignoring it). And whilst graphics can stimulate discussion in offline Push Marketing ('We've got a product and some Gorgeous Graphics here - over here, hello hello, talk about us!') they don't work so well in online Pull Marketing ('I want a Pink Elephant and I want it Now and I don't care who Sells it to me, get all your Nonsense out of my way!').

With rich media (videos, podcasts, Flash) in an online Pull Marketing world you need to offer an alternative (generally a text version) as hey, life's short, and not everyone wants to wait and watch and listen, and not everyone wants to relinquish control for five minutes whilst they absorb a linear message - they'd much rather be hunting around, scanning and skimming.

Of course graphics and rich media can be an indication of a site's credibility. And on catalogue sites good quality photos and appropriate videos are essential to display products. But a fantastic looking site will not be successful simply because it looks great.

Can You Be Effortless Without Putting In Effort?

Website design has to incorporate the principles of 'usability.'

Usability means being easy to use - in essence, putting the customers first and making everything effortless for them.

It means happy customers.

Because they have so much information (and so much of it is badly presented) users have learnt to be ruthless in assessing websites.

You have to meet their requirements within a few seconds or they're OFF.

This follows the theory of 'information foraging' where a surplus of information means visitors snack on bite-sized chunks, following what they hope is an information trail to their goal. If there's no information 'scent' then they quickly leave.

Simple Isn't Stupid
(In Fact It's Clever!)

All pages should abide by the following usability principles.

The design of the page should emphasise important things:

Headlines should be big.

Related items such as navigation buttons should be together.

Navigation should be easy to understand and page headings should be the same as the terms used in the navigation.

Links should be obviously links, and it should be clear where the links lead to.

There should be plenty of 'white space' on the page so that the user is not distracted by the 'noise' of too many competing demands for attention.

Text is best presented as black text on a white background in easy-to-digest chunks.

Generally speaking the customer will scan the page picking out its general 'feel', which indicates whether or not the site is credible. Literate users will then skim through headlines and bolded words, trying to figure out if the site contains anything of interest to them. Less literate users are likely to struggle through the text word by word, getting only partially down the page (research).

The Eyes Have It

Eye-tracking heat maps show that literate Western users start in the top left corner of the page and read in an F-shaped pattern. Use information-carrying headings in the horizontal sweeps, and bullet points with information-rich words for the vertical sweep.

You can view a video of users eye movements here.

And here's a heat-map of an advert in which the model looks straight at you in one image, and at the product in another image. The difference in the model's gaze is almost imperceptible but users pick it up straight away, showing the power of subtle changes in website design. (Note: at the time of writing the heat-map images have been shown the wrong way round).

Testing, Testing!

Ultimately the only way to know how easy it is to use your site is to test it. At a basic level this isn't rocket science and can deliver useful results.

Alchemweb offers a basic usability testing service or is happy to provide entry-level usability tuition.

How Did That Happen?
(Or How You Fell In Love and Lost Your Heart!)

Creating and maintaining a succesful website is hard work. (See how I made this site).

A web site eventually becomes a living, breathing thing that needs to be created with care and looked after with care.

Alchemweb will help you get started and can advise and assist you in maintaining your website!