Tweet

Site Design Usability and Navigation

Written by: Thomas Young

Article Overview: Over the past 50 years, a great science has developed for effective design and layout of a retail store. The result has been increased traffic and sales for properly designed stores. It should come to no surprise that effective layout is just as crucial for a Website if you want to maximize a visitor's positive experience and avoid missed sales.

Site Design Usability and Navigation

Over the past 50 years, a great science has developed for effective design and layout of a retail store. The result has been increased traffic and sales for properly designed stores. It should come to no surprise that effective layout is just as crucial for a Website if you want to maximize a visitor's positive experience and avoid missed sales.

We strongly recommend learning more about site design. Our staff can help you with the basics. Sites designed by our staff are based on effective design principles.

Usability

Your site's ease-of-use (also called "usability") is crucial for effective sales and a positive experience. The science of Website usability has developed quickly in the past 5 years, and many sites have emerged with good advice, some free and some not. Basically, you should test your site by sitting next to your customers and watching them use it to find information about your products and services. Users always think differently than employees about what a site should do. You should build and design a site for the best possible user experience, then test and refine it according to actual user feedback.

Site Design

Good site design also includes the appearance of the site. New sites often make the mistake of thinking that more color is always better. In reality, colors should be chosen carefully and used sparingly. All decisions about Website design, including colors, should be made to improve the experience for your user. Since it has been determined in repeated consumer surveys and tests that information is the primary reason for visiting any Website, your choices should be designed to decrease the amount of time it takes for users to find any information they need.

Navigation

Perhaps the most crucial aspect of site design is often the most neglected: ease and speed of navigation. Navigation is simply the word for the way users will move between pages in your site to find the information they need. Titles for the sections of the site must be short, simple, and unambiguous. Research has shown that any confusion will cause a user to leave your site and seek another site that is easier to understand and navigate.

Related Articles
  Website Navigation: Heart of Web Design
  To Gain Mindshare Design with the User in Mind
  Usability and SEO - Red Light, Green Light
  Mesuring how intuitive your Web site should be
  Legal Marketing: Top 10 Web Design Mistakes that Hurt Legal Marketing

Article Tags:



Related Forum Posts
Re: Top Banner Help - [quote:35xjo6uq]Good job on the banners BennyBoy![/quote:35xjo6uq] No probs:) I agree Online Marketing and Publicity Search Engine Optimization - Web Design and Programming Blogging also may be... Web Design Tutorials Looking to Hire - jobs section Interesting Articles / websites
Re: Quick Ways To Utilize SEO Effectively - There are many different types of content: blog content, website content, newsletter content, audio & video content, the list can be endless. I'll just list 10 types of website content here: * Index/Introduction * Product Descriptions * Testimonials * Reviews * Resources * How-to Information * Downloads * Contact Information * Navigation/Site Map About/Company Info Anchor text as the others have said is the hyperlinked words on a web page - the words you click on when you click a link. Anchor text is important because it tells the search engines what the page is about. Used wisely, it boosts your rankings in search engines, especially in Google.If you use "click here" as the words people are going to click on, you're telling people the page is about the subject "click here", which is not the phrase you want to rank highly for, the text you need to use is a keyword that you have chosen for your website, blog or article. Take care, Carol
Re: what position to request? - Hi Michael, Great suggestion from David, or you could try something around a design consultancy, How about Website Design Consultant, Design and Development Manager, Website Support and Development Manager or maybe Internet Business Development Consultant. Ultimately whatever you are comfortable with and good luck for the future, Mal.
What makes you keep coming back for more? - I am researching on personal preferences that keeps the visitors coming back to a web site. What would be great is if people would list out their preferences of what keeps them interested to keep visiting a website in order or importance. For me it is:- 1. Content – Value, Depth and Recency of Information provided 2. User Friendliness – Easy Navigation, Simple graphic design etc. 3. Service – download time, contactability etc.
Re: Quick Ways To Utilize SEO Effectively - [quote="Carol Aston":fybrn2qt]There are many different types of content: blog content, website content, newsletter content, audio & video content, the list can be endless. I'll just list 10 types of website content here: * Index/Introduction * Product Descriptions * Testimonials * Reviews * Resources * How-to Information * Downloads * Contact Information * Navigation/Site Map About/Company Info Anchor text as the others have said is the hyperlinked words on a web page - the words you click on when you click a link. Anchor text is important because it tells the search engines what the page is about. Used wisely, it boosts your rankings in search engines, especially in Google.If you use "click here" as the words people are going to click on, you're telling people the page is about the subject "click here", which is not the phrase you want to rank highly for, the text you need to use is a keyword that you have chosen for your website, blog or article. Take care, Carol[/quote:fybrn2qt] This is a great topic and useful to anyone who runs a business on the internet. Carol as always your advice is excellent. As far as I know, it is important to use your main keywords as anchor text which lead back to your website or blog, because that is ultimately where you want your readers to go. MichelleJ


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Are You Remarkable Enough?

Are You Too Good for Your Job?

10 Steps to Excelling at Franchise Sales

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.