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User Experience: The Key To Good Online Business Design
| Guest post by: Charly Leetham |
Article Overview: Whenever I am asked to create a website for a client, I always start by asking - ‘What experience do you want your customers / visitors to have?' It's not unusual when you're beginning to plan your website to find yourself feeling uncertain what steps to take for success. By far the biggest task at hand is defining not only your business objectives for the site, but also defining the user experience. You need to figure out how to guide your reader from the opening page to the point where you can make a sale or some other decision action.
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User Experience: The Key To Good Online Business Design
Whenever I am asked to create a website for a client, I always start by asking - ‘What experience do you want your customers / visitors to have?'
It's not unusual when you're beginning to plan your website to find yourself feeling uncertain what steps to take for success. By far the biggest task at hand is defining not only your business objectives for the site, but also defining the user experience. You need to figure out how to guide your reader from the opening page to the point where you can make a sale or some other decision action.
In order to define the User Experience, you must determine the goals for your site. Be clear on the purpose of the site (is it a Selling Site, Informational, Lead Capture), understand who the target audience for the site is and then set reasonable goals so you can measure your website's success in viable ways. Once you have this information, you can define the experience you want your visitors to have on your site.
One thing that will help you is to find other sites that offer goods or services similar to yours. One reason you should do this is that you'll very quickly discover what you don't like - be it colors, format, wording or similar - please make note of these things! Secondly, even when you find concepts you like, you'll want to differentiate your layout so it suits your target audience and branding.
Here are some helps and hints to defining the user experience for a greater level of success.
- Your site layout should make sense and be very easy to navigate. If people have to hunt for what they want, you're unlikely to get the sale. 1 rule of thumb I use is to make sure that a visitor can buy or act on a Call To Action within 3 clicks...
- Find a way to involve your visitor. Interactive sites engage a readers senses more thoroughly, meaning they will likely to stay longer. Video or audio is an excellent way to interact with your visitors.
- Allow your users to give you feedback on their experience. People LOVE to give opinions and you can get some really great ideas for future updates this way. This also makes your user feel closer to you - personalization is a huge tool in cyberville.
- Maintain simplicity. A business website that's too complex does nothing to satisfy the click-through culture. Give your visitors what they want quickly along with the opportunity to do something about it.
- Spell check (don't laugh - you'd be amazed at how many potential customers will be put off by sloppy writing).
- Do your research; test your design. You may not get it right the first or even the second time. In fact, your website should constantly evolve, as your business does...
- Hire the right people for the right jobs (i.e. don't expect your SEO writer to be a web guru, and don't ask your web guru to write!).
- Get to know your visitors. You can't target the world. The better you come to know who is using your website and WHY, the better you'll be able to utilize that space.
Finally, constantly return to your branding and your business goals throughout the process. Consistency matters.
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Referred by: http://www.outrageouslyhealthy.com
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About the Author: Charly Leetham RSS for Charly's articles - Visit Charly's website Charly's expertise has been developed throughout her career that exceeds 24 years. Initially as a hands on 'tech' in the Electronics and Communications Industry (before the IT Industry even existed) and later as a Sales Person, Client Relationship Manager and Contract Manager managing business for employers. In 2004, Charly left her steady, 6 figure a year job to follow her dream of becoming a small business entrepreneur. Her journey has taken her from Retail Store Franchisee, through financial turbulence to a steady and comfortable Home Based Business. Charly shares the experience, the challenges, the realisations and the lessons that she has learnt during her journey to Home Business Entrepreneur. In addition, Charly is Wishlist Member Certified and is one of a few online business professionals who are recommended by the creators of the Wordpress Wishlist Membership Plugin to consult, install and configure Wordpress based Membership and Community Sites.Click here to visit Charly's website   Just What Is Online Business Email Marketing The Importance To Small Business Solopreneurs What Makes You A Solopreneur Small Business Free Blogs For Better Traffic Small Business Launching Your Own Product |
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