Most Websites Are Designed Backwards

January 9th, 2007 by John Herman, under internet marketing, strategy, website design. 3 Comments

Todd Follansbee of WebMarketingResources.net gives some great tips on the real steps involved in designing your website.

1. Extensive interviews. Begin the design process with an extensive client interview to understand the business, its goals and the prospective customer groups. Don’t start at the home page. Rather focus on identifying the final site objective.

2. Brainstorm a list of everything a customer would want to know to be comfortable making a purchase. It may not end up on the final site, but if selling a house for example, include everything from school details to landscape plans.

3. Information groups. Next organize this information into logical groups — utilities, town, house design, etc. These “information groups” will become pages.

4. Sales ladders. Look at the sales process, and visualize how customers proceed to the objective. Ask: When is each information group likely to arise? Sequence the information groups in a “ladder” which mimics this. Confirm with either experts or prospects. Now expand the ladder and begin organizing pages from the information groups.

5. Storyboard. No text yet, just information outlines. Start the page layout as a rough storyboard. Spend no more then 10 to 15 minutes per page and hand draw each page including spots for relevant images. Mark obvious links to other relevant groups. Insure that each page directly relates to the objective.

6. Review and test. Now review your understanding of the typical prospect. Can you make assumptions about preferred communication style, interests, motivations or focus? Which is more important: the investment value or neighborhood schools? Test your assumptions with some typical buyers or experts. We often end up building multiple sales paths based upon several customer persona groups, but for now build one path using this information. (Multiple paths are a topic for another article but are a key part of Conversion Point Architecture.)

7. Navigation. With the path architected from beginning to end; we build out the architecture or navigation map with standard site elements that users expect like About Us, FAQs etc.

8. Hire designers. Designers are called only when content is set and architectural elements are clearly laid out. Discuss the look and feel, content delivery, and explain how to place the graphics to utilize eye tracking to support key messages.

9. Build the site. Designers deliver best when provided with detailed content and site plans and can focus on visuals. With the right look and feel in place, the “beta” is tested on several prospective clients for navigational confusion, sales blocks, functional problems like browser compatibility, and finally, content problems or unanswered product questions.

10. Launch, monitor, refine. Launch the site, note your metrics. Continually monitor and refine site elements. Set conversion goals and explore new presentations and elements.

Read the full article on Web Marketing Today

Do you annoy your users?

September 27th, 2006 by John Herman, under website design. No Comments

There are many times when your website does things that annoy your users. You never hear about it.

I am going to be paying for my student loans forever … or at least it seems that way. Every month I go to the Sallie Mae website. Recently the website was redesigned. In the new version, you type in your username. Then I tab and type in my password. Then I hit Enter on reflex. Now I end up on a search page that says I did not try and search for anything.

It drives me crazy everytime!

I try to break the habit of hitting enter. I almost did it today when I went to log-in. The real problem is: Why should I have to change for them? Too bad I never email them and tell them.

Are you annoying your customers and don’t even know it?

Building a Successful Website in 10 Easy Steps

August 28th, 2006 by John Herman, under internet marketing, website design. No Comments

A great article on website basics by Scott Lindsay of High Power Sites -

So why do you want a website? Would you like to create a personal page to tell the world who you are and what you dream for? Or maybe you have a large family, with members living in different parts of the world and you’d like to keep the family together at least online. What about making a living online or promoting your business? No matter the reasons, here are a few tips that will help you create a professional website.

1. Design a website focused on a particular topic and then carefully categorize its contents. If it’s a family site keep it to the subject and don’t mess it up with unrelated issues. If it’s a business site and you sell flowers, don’t put in web design services, escort services and so on.

2. Avoid heavy loading images, especially for the background. It is actually advisable that you avoid dark backgrounds all together – dark colors usually inspire negative feelings. People might subconsciously reject your message because of a cluttered, unpleasant background.

3. Don’t use Flash: it is annoying for visitors that still use dial up and need to wait for Flash to load, it cannot get through certain firewalls and you can rarely find a web designer able to create a Flash website worth its price. Oh, yeah! Flash is expensive. Flash also has another major disadvantage: it is very difficult to optimize and reach high SERP. Use no sound – unless you create a website for a music band or other music related topic. Believe it: it’s scary to land on the page that suddenly plays an AC/DC theme.

4. Create a clear menu and clear navigation on all your web pages. As in life, people do not like “dead ends” so don’t lead them to dead pages. Help your visitors find easily what they are looking for.

5. Make sure your visitors can contact you. Eventually provide a contact phone number, fax and email address on each page. If not, display a clear contact button. Note that people HATE to fill in long forms. If you must have one, don’t force the visitors give out information they normally wouldn’t like to. Keep it simple. After a visitor has contacted you, make sure you answer it time. Failing to answer questions and requests could damage your good name.

6. If you collect private information – yes, email address, phone number and name are considered private information – provide a clear link to a disclaimer and privacy policy. You don’t want your visitors to believe you are going to sell their email addresses to spammers, would you?

7. People don’t really care who you are. Sure, it is important that they know there are real people behind a business, but it is more important that you first underline the benefits a visitor can find on your website. Place the information about who you are in the proper “About Us” category and let the visitor decide whether to read it or not.

8. Use special characters carefully on your page copy. This includes ALL CAPS, bold and italic text. Try not to underline phrases or words, as people tend to consider underlined text as links. Use special characters solely for what really matters, when you really want to highlight an idea.

9. Do not display any “under construction” pages on your website. If they are under construction keep them offline till you are ready. Also avoid dead links or 404 error messages.

10. Always have a linking strategy. This will boost your site in the search engine results and will give your visitors access to valuable information. Make sure that you link to sites that complete your website. If you are selling lamps link to lighting magazines, interior decoration companies and so on.

These are just simple rules that will help you make the first steps in creating a professional, user friendly website. There are other important aspects you should consider: designing with web standards, optimizing your web pages for both visitors and search engines, promoting your website and so on. But for the beginning these ten simple steps could make the difference between success and failure.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. HighPowerSites is the easiest do-it-yourself website builder on the web. No programming or design skill required. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with HighPowerSites.com at: http://www.highpowersites.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scott_Lindsay