Often times when I work on or evaluate a commercial website, I come to the conclusion that things could have been much improved if all participants in the design process kept a few guidelines in mind when conducting their work. Mind you, these guidelines are not inviolate; but they often help keep us away from narcissistic design that bedevils many a website.
Hang the list up on your cubicle wall: mock it when you want, add and strike from it as needed, curse it when it causes you to rethink what you’re doing…but ignore it at your peril.
- You don’t know what you are doing.
This is often the hardest one to swallow, so let’s get it out of the way first. It’s not about talent. It’s not about you. It’s about the fact that only your users know what you are doing, and they tell you what you’ve done based on how they interact with your site. Are you listening to them? How?
- Always provide a way for your visitor to purchase your product.
If you have something to sell, don’t send users down dead end streets with nary a “Buy” link in sight.
- Don’t make your visitors have to figure out what it is you are selling.
If you have images of fish all over your website, you’d better be a fishmonger. The artwork you employ and the images you display should relate to what it is you provide your customers. Sounds simple, but it’s easy to lose sight of.
- Always provide a way for the visitor to picture the product as something real.
People want to buy real things. The more tangible you make your product or service, the more likely it is people will understand what you are selling and will be able to tell themselves a compelling story about it. This is a process of reification and you need to help your visitors with it.
- Always provide a way/ways for them to learn more about your products/services.
Don’t leave a visitor stranded between interest and action. Give your visitors ample opportunity to learn more about what you’re about. As mentioned previously, demos, newsletters, forums, etc… can all help turn your visitors into customers.
- Always provide ways for non-purchase behavior to convert for you.
Not everyone who comes to your site is ready to make a purchase. Look for ways to convert from non-purchase behavior. Can you offer them a newsletter they can sign up for? What about providing demos for them to attend if they aren’t sure? How about a contact link for more information? All of these can help you identify people who have shown interest in what you have to offer. Why not foster and grow your relationship with them?
- Always provide indications that other people have purchased the product.
Nobody wants to be the only purchaser, nobody wants to be the first, and nobody wants to be the guinea pig for your product/service. Prominently display your customers, indicate the number of times something has been purchased, even allow users to rate and comment on your product or service. All help to reassure your customers that you are legit and they aren’t taking a gamble on you. If you can work in customer endorsements, do it.
- Always provide ways for users to understand what the benefits of the product are.
People do want to know what your features are, but don’t neglect the opportunity to tell them what the benefits are as well. Can’t tell the difference? Go find a bottle of aspirin: “500mg” is a feature. “Makes your headache go away” is a benefit.
- Always provide ways for users to understand your product features.
Don’t hide your features, especially if you have more of something good (or less of something bad) than the competition does. There’s a reason why we always hear the barkers talk about how many plies are in the toilet paper, how many horse power are bucking under the hood, what speed that processor is, how many clads there are on cookware, etc. People care about the details, and your details are part of your identity. Don’t neglect them.
- Never assume you know where a user will first arrive at your site.
Treat every page as if it’s the one your user might land on first. No, this doesn’t mean all you can have are “home pages”…but it does mean that the visitor should be able to quickly apprehend where s/he is and where s/he can go from there.
- Never assume you know what order of pages a user will navigate
This is the corollary to the one above. It’s OK to have structure and a linear path, but don’t assume that’s how your users will traverse your site.
- Never, ever claim to have improved the site simply because you’ve cut the number of pages from X to (X-Y).
Page count in and of itself means nothing, it is not its own metric, and there’s no way to know if you’ve improved anything (by increasing or reducing page count) without measurement.
- Never trust prescriptive lists, including this one.
They’ll let anyone on the internet these days…me included. Take everything I’ve said with a grain of salt…or better yet, post the list on your office wall so you can glance at it occasionally when you’re working on your next website.
What website design felonies do you see repeated again and again? What guidelines do you find yourself returning to? Please share in the comments.
