Web Design,
as design in general, is subject to changes and trend
influences. Words like fresh, modern, innovative
seem to conquer the world of design while artists strive
to discover new directions. Websites are different:
objectives, resources and users are the factors shaping
the profitability of a site. For a site to be successful,
designers need to go ahead of the rules. Breaking the
rules is not a problem. Not being able to find something
on a website is.
The truth is that web design is not easy. There are
several factors shaping the web layout and the architecture
of a site, some see them as rules, others believe there
are no rules at all. Yet, as far as business websites
are concerned, there are some guidelines.
About Us and Contact Us
The role of a business website is to represent a company
and its products on the web, describing the company's
objectives and providing enough information for the
users. Users want to know who they are dealing with.
The about us area should enclose general
information about the management team, company history
and company philosophy. This is also the right place
to display photos of the team and the managers for a
simple reason: pictures enhance credibility, as people
believe that you are not trying to hide.
Some websites show within the about us category
maps and addresses for the company, while others use
a contact us area where they display contact
forms, phone and fax numbers or department emails. For
some users there is nothing more annoying than being
forced to fill in long contact formularies or registrations.
Try to avoid such practices. Let your users decide if
they want to fill in all the details or if they d rather
save some time and fill in a short form. Provide options,
be flexible.
Products and Services
Depending on what a company has to offer the products
and services areas describe goods or services
that are either sold on the website or advertised there
in order to be sold somewhere else. The categories should
be clearly structured, the descriptions simple and relevant,
if necessary illustrated by related pictures or graphics.
Too many images though distract users from the content.
Use them carefully.
News
This is quite simple: what's new about your company
or products and services? Do you have any recent awards
or events worth a web presentation? Write a text and
publish it in this category. Keep it simple and try
to use as many business related keywords as possible.
More: distribute your news and press releases on relevant
web outlets and drive traffic to your site.
Try to get testimonials from your clients and display
them online. Sometimes even a critique shown online
can bring you positive reactions. People will appreciate
your honesty, and will trust you more than they trust
companies which praise their own success too much. Be
realistic, careful and show concern for the users, not
for yourself.
Disclaimer or Privacy Policy
This is not a rule: it's a must! Companies deal with
clients; people who wish their privacy to be protected
and sometimes other sites can provide illegal or harmful
information. Wikipedia defines a disclaimer as follows:
A disclaimer is a legal statement which generally states
that the person/group authoring the disclaimer is not
responsible for any mishap in the event of using whatever
object or information the disclaimer is attached to.
The privacy policy is, according to the same source,
a disclaimer as well: A privacy policy is a disclaimer
placed on a website informing users about how the website
deals with a user's personal information.
Put simply, maintaining audience expectations and delivering
usable content are the main factors influencing the
success of a business website. But the website architecture
has to be followed by a cutting edge design and reliable
ways to increase users loyalty.
Newsletters
Sites with fresh content that changes often offer users
the option to sign up for eNewsletters. These should
not be sent too often: studies show that too many reminders
become an annoyance for many clients. Due to the
fact that they feel more personal than websites, email
newsletters will generate different emotional reactions
for the users. The subscribe and unsubscribe options
allow companies to measure success: how many users are
interested in receiving periodic information and how
many lose their interest? The key to successful eNewsletter
campaigns is simple: DO NOT SPAM! Let people go if they
choose to unsubscribe. If your messages become annoying
the negative feelings from one client will easily go
to another. Verba Volant!
As with website design, the newsletter design should
be uncomplicated and user friendly. People should be
able to find what they are looking for fast. Even the
subscribe and unsubscribe processes should be fast:
the longer the time needed to subscribe or unsubscribe,
the higher the lost of customer satisfaction.
So keep the newsletters simple, useful and easy to deal
with. Do not overload clients with information. Just
tell them the basics and, if they are interested, they
will certainly come to you, email or call, requesting
more information. To succeed, write good subject lines
that will help users distinguish the newsletter from
Spam. Each headline has to make sense and preferably
be followed by a short abstract of the general content.
Plain language is the best approach. People don't need
to get the feeling they are teased or led on. For reference
visit Pamil Visions and get the Writing Newsletters
*.pdf document you can find in the downloads area.
Other Issues
Branding your business doesn't refer only to stationery
and printed brochures. The website is an ideal mean
to promote your business visual standards. Include your
logo at the top left of all pages and respect your corporate
colour scheme. Have a consistent look and feel in all
your pages. Again, I encourage you to visit Pamil Visions
for advice in this matter, or other branding and public
relations related sites.
Consistency is a powerful tool. When things are the
same users know what to expect. They will not feel intimidated
by new approaches or exasperated by unnecessary artifices.
For example Flash collected the bronze medal for annoyance.
Let it out. Why should you open your site with an intro
most of the users will skip anyways? The same goes for
pop-ups!
Make the site easy to read. That means you need choose
the fonts and their colours carefully: not too big or
too light. The most legible fonts are standard serif
and sans-serif (Times, Arial; Verdana). The pictures
and graphics should have small file sizes to avoid slow
loading pages. Optimize your pictures for the web.
Content you write for the web should be short, scan-able
and to the point. Some business sites are afraid that
users will copy their valuable texts and use them somewhere
else, getting commercial advantages. For this reasons
they ask the designers to display texts as a picture.
Wrong: have you ever heard of print screen? If someone
wants to copy your work that will happen anyway no matter
if we talk about text or graphics.
About
the Author: Mihaela Lica is the founder of Pamil
Visions - http://www.pamil-visions.com/. She
is now a freelance writer, public relations consultant
and an artist. Previously she used to be a respected
TV redactor, working for the Romanian Ministry of Defense.
At the moment she works with small and new business
helping them in their branding efforts. |
