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Web design usability features that win business
| Guest post by: Jonathan |
Article Overview: There’s a lot to consider when developing a new, or managing an existing website. There is more to a website than meets the eye. Read on to find out how web design usability features can help you to win business.
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Free Download - How NOT to SEO your site By Jonathan |
Web design usability features that win business
If you're a website designer, run a website or are perhaps thinking about a website redesign there are some essential usability issues that you should pay close attention to in order to extract every last drop of value out of your project. Some of them might seem a little obvious; others even a little silly. Rest assured though that when applied together they conspire to deliver a killer website usability experience. It's all very well being a visual design ninja, but if the user experience is a fail then the site is going nowhere. A solid web design foundation is the guarantee you need to boost visits, site time, click through and conversions.
Easy on the eye
The classic copy content presentation advice is keep it easy on the eye. People skim and scan online. Make reading easy for visitors by heading and subheading your copy using header tags. Short sentences in short paragraphs make consumption of your copy quick and easy. Highlight words and use bullet points to present your ideas succinctly and attractively.
People or machines?
In the choice between people and machines, people win every single time. In their pursuit of top search rankings, web designers and web copywriters are sometimes guilty of writing for the search spiders and algorithms instead of their visitors. Make you copy human, humane and link worthy. That's your differential - the inbound links you inspire through quality content. Not keywords crammed into a phoney article that exists purely as spider food.
Consistency, consistency, consistency
People know what they like and like what they know. By keeping your page structures consistent you improve the reader experience by stopping them having to climb small but subtly irritating learning curves every time they visit a new page to sample more of your content. Pages should be easy on the eye and ideally structured around a grid design to make the content sit comfortably and allow visitors to intuitively feel their way around the screen.
Browserbility
There's more than one way to browse a website and though Internet Explorer is the most commonly used browser many people now use Firefox, Safari or Opera. Google's Chrome is also starting to make rapid advance now so it's vital that your site looks and functions as it should across a range of different browsers.
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Article Tags: Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, web design
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About the Author: Jonathan RSS for Jonathan's articles - Visit Jonathan's website Having over 12 years experience in the IT industry and a qualified MCSE, Jonathan's web design and digital marketing is big on inspiration, big on know how and totally client focused. Whether you are a sole trader or a multi-national Onit Solutions is committed to long term, Internet marketing partnerships, web development and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) that exceeds customer expectations. Considered a leader in the field of organic SEO, Jonathan has an enviable and 100% proven track record of delivering page one positions in major search engines such as Google and Bing. His work wins clients many thousands of new customers and millions of pounds worth of new enquiries and sales. Jonathan is also the founder of the much talked about pixel advertising site, Tired Mouse. His love of internet, advertising and marketing ensures he is always at the forefront of expertly managed and maintained Internet marketing delivering impressive, measurable results. Click here to visit Jonathan's website   Why dont your visitors love you SEO Quality Vs SEO Quantity Take stock with an SEO Audit Website experiences Part 1 Bad SEO advice |
Related Forum Posts
Marketing vs Web Optimizers vs Usability
- Hi BigJim22,
I must be honest - I haven't really read a lot of Seth's articles on web site strategies.
What I have found though is that there always seems to be a three way conflict between marketing ideas, SEO strategies and usability issues when doing web development. The secret is to balance between the ideal situation for each of these. Since a website needs to be found, visited and acted upon we need a strong combination of marketing, SEO and usability to be successful. It's something we struggle with constantly at Last Minute Training and I'm sad to say - we still haven't found the right combination.
Re: Focus groups
- Although focus groups can be a powerful tool in system development , you shouldn't use them as your only source of usability data.
People with an advertising or marketing background often rely solely on focus groups to expose products to users.
Thus , because advertising and marketing people frequently contribute to web site development , focus groups are often used to evaluate Web projects.
Unfortunately , focus groups are a rather poor method for evaluating interface usability. It is thus dangerous to rely on them as your only method in a Web design project. Traditional market research targets products for which usability is a minor concern. When judging , for example , what proposals a politician should support , how sweet a chocolate bar should be , or whether to show a new Mercedes braking in snow or in rain , you need only expose a group of consumers to different versions of the proposal , candy , or commercial, ask them which they prefer , and listen to their reasons as to why they prefer one or the other.
Software products , websites , and other interactive systems also need to be liked by customers , but no amount of subjective preference will make a product viable if users can't use it.
To assess whether users can operate an interactive system , the only proper methodology is to sit users down , one at a time , and have them use the system. Because focus groups are groups , individuals rarely get the chance to explore the system on their own; instead , the moderator usually provides a product demo as the basis for discussion.
Watching a demo is fundamentally different from actually using the product: There is never a question as to what to do next and you don't have to ponder the meaning of numerous screen options..................
Business Identity
- I am myself a fairly new business owner who has been operating a freelance graphic design business from my home studio for about 2 years now. In the last year I have really been wanting to grow my business. I would like to help other trail blazers like myself who are starting up a by offering design of your business identity at a very economical price. Get a professional business logo for $50 (USD). My price includes unlimited concepts and revisions and I work until you are satisfied with the final design. Please contact me for more information and samples of my logo work.
Thanks!
Tara
Re: Missing information about Facebook
- [quote="OmnivoreInk":fk3hbrke]Someone (I throw this out to everyone here, free of charge) should design such a site but aimed strictly at business people. Instead of favorite books, movies, tv shows, etc. list their skills and business interests...
[/quote:fk3hbrke]
I wasn't overly impressed with Facebook, but I'll look again when I have more time to really take a look.
Barbara
Have you checked out Ryze.com and LinkedIn.com? They both have some really good features and networking possibilities.
Shri
Re: What newsletter program to use?
- I use Constant Contact for myself and Aweber for a client who needs the autoresponder features. Aweber is also great for integration with PayPal. However, I don't like designing using Aweber. I design using Expression Web 2, then copy paste the codes.
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