Design My Own Website

One of my favorite web design authors is Jakob Nielsen.  He is quite old school and has some fantastic web design books like Designing Web Usability

It is as basic as considering web user psychology.  His stats indicated that, generall speaking, if after three seconds there was no feedback from the browser, then the user would click the “Back” button and go to the next site.

If the page did not fully load within 10 seconds, they would click that “Back” button.

In the old days of 56K modems, this meant that your page had to be under 100K (graphics and text included).  These days you can afford to have a few megabytes worth of web site.

The gist of it is: web user psychology is a whole new ball game.  People expect free and fast for most things.  So you need to design your website to give and give fast (even if you’re selling something!).

(Ever wonder why big flashy splash pages are shunned? Because it takes too long to loud and it gives the user NOTHING!  Just like a movie that has too many special effects just for the sake of special effects!!)

Today, people want instant results.

Web User Psychology: give it to me fast!

If your web design does not grab their attention immediately, they won’t stick around. And if your web site does not offer something of benefit, they won’t bookmark it and they won’t come back..

So, with that in mind, let’s discuss some practical ways to grab the attention of web site visitors.

Nothing Extraneous In Design

If it doesn’t provide value, don’t put it in.  Because it is extra content that must be downloaded.

Easy To Navigate

One of the most interesting things to do is film a user browsing your site.  Give them a list of tasks you’d want them to do and see how they do it.  Even when the web designer believes it is obvious, often times it is not.  Make it easy for the general public to navigate

web design 101: Do Not Make Your Site Hard To Navigate

Utilize Existing Convention

Many popular sites have helped put conventions into play.  Use them! Users have been trained.  Use these conventions because the less they think, they happier they are with your site.

An example: the use of menus and tabs on the top or on the side.  Thank you Amazon.  People expect to see their navigation in these areas.  So use that, why put it at the bottom ? The less you confuse your readers, the happier they are, the more they will like their site.

Make Your Point … Quickly!

Often times when you write something, you can rewrite it and delete half the text.

Make Them Want More.

This is important, because you want them to come back.  Continue to deliver just enough quality content.

A great way to get them to come back is to also incorporate a mailing list. Offer an incentive to join the mailing list.  This way they are in effect subscribing to your blog!  Then it is up to you to continue to deliver great content and a valuable service!

These are the basics when planning your online business or even just building your own website and designing your website presence. Now go use these and create a killer site for yourself!