Site Design, Usability and Navigation

By: Thomas Young, MBA

Over the past 50 years, a great science has developed for effective design and layout of a retail store. The result has been increased traffic and sales for properly designed stores. It should come to no surprise that effective layout is just as crucial for a Website if you want to maximize a visitor's positive experience and avoid missed sales.

We strongly recommend learning more about site design. Our staff can help you with the basics. Sites designed by our staff are based on effective design principles.

Usability

Your site's ease-of-use (also called "usability") is crucial for effective sales and a positive experience. The science of Website usability has developed quickly in the past 5 years, and many sites have emerged with good advice, some free and some not. Basically, you should test your site by sitting next to your customers and watching them use it to find information about your products and services. Users always think differently than employees about what a site should do. You should build and design a site for the best possible user experience, then test and refine it according to actual user feedback.

Site Design

Good site design also includes the appearance of the site. New sites often make the mistake of thinking that more color is always better. In reality, colors should be chosen carefully and used sparingly. All decisions about Website design, including colors, should be made to improve the experience for your user. Since it has been determined in repeated consumer surveys and tests that information is the primary reason for visiting any Website, your choices should be designed to decrease the amount of time it takes for users to find any information they need.

Navigation

Perhaps the most crucial aspect of site design is often the most neglected: ease and speed of navigation. Navigation is simply the word for the way users will move between pages in your site to find the information they need. Titles for the sections of the site must be short, simple, and unambiguous. Research has shown that any confusion will cause a user to leave your site and seek another site that is easier to understand and navigate.