Website Layout and Design
Websites that don’t function well and are difficult to navigate make it tough for users to make a purchase or find out what they need. Frequently it is hard to figure out what action to perform with the information provided on a site. It is vital to provide your audience with an indication of the type of ‘action’, if any, you prefer them to make.
It will be difficult to sell your product if your buy-it page link is hard to find. One of the most important issues in web design is ease of functionality, and clear buttons and links will make your site much easier for visitors to read and navigate.
Users are less likely to take action if their attention is distracted by something on the page. The number of pages users must navigate between the point of entry and the point of sale should be as few as possible.
Intuitiveness is key in terms of navigability and use of hyperlinks. The navigation section needs to be plainly demarcated as separate from the primary content of your web page. Users of the website should be able to locate information by no more than three clicks. To make sure that your site is easy to navigate and understand, you should give specific tasks to accomplish on your site to several different people, and encourage them to give you constructive feedback. Utilize this feedback to enhance the user experience.
Another issue that pops up with some websites is the issue of presentation vs. substance. One example of this would be the use of Flash. If too much Flash is used, pages can take too much time to load, leading to boredom for your visitors. Even more important, too many distractions on the page can take away from your intended message. Style should be subordinate to the content, not the other way around. Extras like animation, graphics and video, among others, have a place to be used on your site, but be sure these ‘extras’ don’t crowd out or distract from your central message.
Don’t just build a website and then neglect it. Much of the information you provided at start up will be outdated six months down the road. Visitors are not likely to make a return visit if they are disappointed by what they find on one of the countless outdated websites on the Internet.
Make sure your website is validated. When a website doesn’t “validate”, it means you must rely to a degree on the browser’s “estimate” of how it should work, and not all browsers are equally accommodating. Without trying out your site in each of the usual browsers, you have no way of knowing exactly how it looks on the monitors of your target viewers.
Ease of access. Websites ought to be made as accessible as they can be to a diverse audience. Furnish links directing to the primary content right under your banner to ensure that those using screen readers won’t need to hear the navigation for each page if they don’t want to.