Custom Websites

Here are the 9 Top factors in Website Design & Usability

Think about how these factors are working on your website design.

1. First Glance

People Generally read left to right so they will look at the top left of your website first, then scan to the right on a downward motion.
People are time poor so they will not always read every part of your website.

If something is important then it will need to be in there scan line. eg. the top righthand corner of the website was just missed by your visitor. To enhance the first glance don't hide the website behind a flash page (especially a slow loading splash page) or page that is not relevant to the visitors needs.

2. What do you want the Visitor to do?

Do you have a Call to Action? Make it easy for the visitor to know what to do next. Make the CAll to action Clear on the page, even if you have a lot of content on that page a simple call to action can help immensely.

3. Contact Information

Custmers and search engines need to see how to contact you. always have 2 or 3 ways to contact you, and have these ways simple and easyto find. A physical address is always handy if you are selling a product or service.

If you must put your email address on the site (a form is preferable) then use a javascript to hide the email address from the bots – stop spam where you can.

4. Navigation

Keep your site navigation simple and consistant, keep it the same on all pages and with a small amount of choices. Navigation should be designed to get the visitor to there desired page quickly and easily. You do want that click to be within your website.

Keep the Navigation bar in standard website locations so as to make the user experience a happy one

5. Keep the important Stuff Above the Fold

Just like in newspapers, keep the important stuff above the fold many visitors won't scroll down, so keep the important stuff above the fold.

Using frames that force the reader to scroll within a frame is normally worse than having a long page, the user experience is reduced.