Website Building : Keeping your visitors for more than 50 miliseconds

Posted by Jennifer Farley | August 6, 2006 | Leave A Comment

A recent study at Carelton University in Ottawa, Canada suggests that the first impression of your website design is made in about one twentieth of second. Fairly mind-boggling stuff and when you consider the length of time you’ve spent designing your site and working out your super-friendly navigation system.

The Canadian team showed volunteer testers a short glimpse of several websites, lasting for only 50 milliseconds. The testers then had to rate the websites in terms of their aesthetic appeal. The researchers found that although impressions were formed incredibly quickly, when the testers looked at the websites for a longer period they came to the same conclusions.

The Halo Effect
The researchers also found that the quickly formed first impressions last because of what is known to psychologists as the “halo effect”.

When the testers believed that a website looked good, this positive feeling spread to other parts of the site such as the content.

Gitte Lindgaard of Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and lead researcher of the paper warned that companies should take note. “Unless the first impression is favourable, visitors will be out of your site before they even know that you might be offering more than your competitors,” she said.

Tips to keep your visitors on the site
So when you’re up against this sort of speedily formed impression, what can you do to keep your first-time visitors on your site? Here are some tips:

1. Your home page is a gateway to the rest of the site. Provide links to popular parts of the site, highlight new content and setup navigation to categories you may have on your site.

2. Flash and video can slow down a page’s loading time, so keep these sort of plug-ins off the home page if possible.

3. A short, snappy, straight to the point explanation of what your site is about should appear in a prominent place on the home page.

4. Ensure that your navigation system is obvious and easy to use. You may have beautifully designed icons, but unless a user can easily understand what they do, you will have some frustrated visitors on your hands.

5. Your navigation system should always be above the fold (you should be able to see it without scrolling down the page). Your visitors should see your logo first and then your navigation immediately after.

6. Visitors like search boxes. It’s easy to add a simple search box to your home page.

7. Don’t make your visitors to for anything unless absolutely necessary, it’s a sure fire way to drive them off your site. Provide interesting content to keep them on your site.

Posted by Jennifer Farley | Filed Under Website Building 

Website Navigation: 9 tips to consider on how your site will look and how customers will navigate through it

Posted by Jennifer Farley | June 28, 2006 | Leave A Comment

Good web sites begin with a good design that is simple to use. The design and content on the homepage should grab the visitor’s attention, and the inner pages should be easy to navigate through. Make sure that visitors can find information easily and use language the visitor will understand rather than the company’s internal lingo.

  1. Visitors should be able to tell immediately what the company does.
  2. It should take visitors no more than two clicks to find the info they want.
  3. Visitors should know where they are within the web site at all times. Make the menu system obvious.
  4. Include a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section
  5. Make the site accessible – use sufficiently large fonts and images with alternate descriptions.
  6. Use visuals that are useful, for example, photographs of products, maps with directions. Avoid unnecessary distractions.
  7. Provide quality content – make sure it is written well and spelled correctly.
  8. Go easy on the buzz words.
  9. Provide a link to the homepage on every page so that in one click, users can get back there.

Posted by Jennifer Farley | Filed Under Website Building 

Web Design : No Site, No Sales

Posted by Jennifer Farley | June 19, 2006 | Leave A Comment

Researched commissioned by the hosting company 1&1 has found that 85% of 1848 people polled said they would be wary of buying from a company that did not have a website. The web is now so intrinsically linked to business that not having a site means that customers will not buy from you.

The research also revealed that one in five small businesses had no idea of the importance consumers place on having a website. Consumers expect every business to have a professional web presence and second-rate sites are seen as a turn-off.

One of the problems with not having your own website is that you lose the chance to build trust with potential clients. People won’t buy if they don’t have a sense of trust. If you look at the Ebay, much of the buying (and selling) is based on the feedback and ratings system.

Even a basic static site is extremely useful. There is a real commercial reason for having an online presence today.

Posted by Jennifer Farley | Filed Under Website Building 

Web Design : Usability Testing

Posted by Jennifer Farley | May 18, 2006 | Leave A Comment

Usability testing is a vitally important part of the web design process. It is not difficult to put together a usability study. The following tips will help you get the most out of your testing and research.

1. You will need a number of participants who fit into the target audience profile for the website. There is no point using a set of web-savvy teenagers to test a site aimed at holidays for seniors.

2. Decide on your questions and the tasks you want your group to complete. Are you tyring to get a user response to colour schemes, fonts used, or how the navigation works? You need to figure out what you’re actually measuring.

3. A tried and tested methodology in usability testing is to get your users to rate different attributes along a sliding scale from a strong negative to a strong positive. For example, “Do you think the colours used in the site are complimentary and convey a strong idea of …”

4. Try different layouts of your pages and variations on your site. Find out which alternatives work best for your test subjects.

5.Watch what your testers DO as well as what they say. You may find that your testers say they can find the search box, but did they really. Without any intervention, try to see what’s going on, on screen.

6. Set a time limit for your testers to complete certain tasks and stick to it.

And that’s all there is to it. Ok, maybe you might want to buy your testers a drink or give them some choccies to say thanks.

Posted by Jennifer Farley | Filed Under Website Building 

Blogging : Your business needs you!

Posted by Jennifer Farley | May 1, 2006 | Leave A Comment

Many businesses are now finding blogs to be a very effective business tool. Blogs can help you introduce yourself to new clients in a way that a standard brochure website cannot. Often wrongfully seen as just an online diary, blogs can help solidify a customer base and allow you to get helpful feedback. AND! AND! AND! they are a pretty low-cost tool as they can be set up and maintained for very little money.

One of the most important things to remember about blogs is that they need to be updated regularly. For a business blog, that means at least 2 to 3 times per week, so you can build up a feeling of consistency. When you are set up and running with your blog, make sure to take advantage of the quick and easy method of getting feedback from your readers. Ask for it!

(By the way - I would like some feedback too! If you have comments, questions or suggestions about this blog or the Laughing Lion Design website, I would be delighted to hear from you)

Blogger.com and Wordpress.com are two good places to start if you want to experiment for free.

Posted by Jennifer Farley | Filed Under Website Building 

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