Timothy
Parker Consulting Incorporated
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Designing an effective Web site part 1 Last time, we developed a Web site. (At least I told you to; you did, didn't you? If not, you really should get cracking.) A Web site takes a surprisingly long time to develop properly, even with one of the automated HTML generation tools like Microsoft's FrontPage or Multiactive's ecBuilder. If all you want is a Web presence telling the world who you are, what you do, and how to get in touch with you, then a few pages will be all your require. Figure a couple of days to make it look pretty, upload it to the Web server, and you're there. But we want to set up an e-commerce site, so a simple Web presence isn't enough. We want to sell stuff. We need to accept huge numbers of orders from the Web surfers out there, and laugh all the way to the bank. Better save the laughs for later at this stage as the Web site has got to be a winner to generate any sales at all. Before we move on to look at what else we need to do to roll in the dough, let's spend a little while concentrating on a good Web design. After all, even if you have the best products or services in the world, few users will order them if the Web site is awkward, unattractive, or boring. Your Web site has to be an attention-grabber and has to get the customers to your order page quickly and easily. Can you expect to get a dazzler of a Web page from FrontPage or ecBuilder? No, is the simple answer. These HTML generation utilities do a good job of layout of the site and filling it with words, but there's no mistaking a site developed with either of these tools. When it comes to fancy features, there's nothing to compete with coding HTML directly. Unfortunately, this means you either have to learn HTML or farm out the production to someone else. But don't give up hope yet as we don't want to spend that kind of money yet. All these code generation tools are handy for getting a prototype developed and starting a Web presence until we know the product or service will sell. Then we make the investment in custom coding. So, let's use one of the code generation utilities to come up with our first Web site, good enough to attract the masses and present our message cleanly. All the web design utilities give you a variety of templates and designs you can use on your Web page. Most of them you should avoid. For most companies and organizations a Web site provides information about services and products. Since a Web site is the only source of information for many visitors, impressions of the Web site affect the company directly. Designing an effective Web site takes planning and experimentation in order to get your message across properly. To help you design an effective Web site, identify the potential readers of your site so that you can structure the site design to meet their needs and expectations. The knowledge, background, interests and needs of users will vary from tentative novices who need a carefully structured introduction to expert users who may be frustrated at anything patronizing or slow to access the information they want. A well-designed site should be able to accommodate a range of users' skills and interests. Home pages aimed at the occasional shopper or browsers should be analogous to magazine covers: the objective is to entice casual browsers with a mix of graphics and clear statements about the content of the site. All links on the site should point inwards to other pages on the site, especially to your catalog or list of services. Provide concise statements of what is in your site that might interest this type of user and let them know what you're selling on the first page. Web novices tend to be intimidated by complex menus and may be tentative about delving into the site if the home page is not attractive and clearly arranged. Infrequent users tend to benefit from site overview pages and graphics that trigger memory about where stuff is stored on your site. A glossary of terms, acronyms, abbreviations, and FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) can be helpful to these users and provide a definite service even when they are not shopping. While the casual and inexperienced users are a concern for most Web page designers, their number is shrinking as more people get Web experience. The more technically competent users depend on your site to obtain information quickly and accurately. Expert Web users are impatient about low-density graphic menus that offer only a few choices at a time. They want stripped-down, fast-loading text menus. Excess graphics are annoying. These experienced users usually have specific goals in mind when they visit the site (they want to buy or look up prices and details) and they appreciate detailed text menus, site structure outlines, site indexes, and well-designed search engines. Somehow you have to accommodate the inexperienced and experienced users all at once. There's another category of users you need to think about at the same time. The Web is worldwide so you need to allow for access from other countries. Eventually you may need to provide translations of key items, at least the menu pages, to other languages. For example, if your market is the Canadian population specifically, you had better provide French versions of your site at some point, or you've lost a sizable portion of your market. To appeal to international users, avoid idiosyncratic professional jargon and obscure technical acronyms in introductory and overview pages. An often-overlooked item: don't assume all readers follow our date and time conventions or number presentations. Our rules of commas and periods are different from those in other countries. It sounds like this is getting complicated, but start simple and build up, bit by bit, as time and finances allow. Next issue we look at what makes a nice e-commerce Web site. |
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