In today's day and age, a massive amount of commerce is performed over the internet. This has allowed many small businesses to develop and prosper thanks to the relatively low costs associated with running a website. Of course, simply throwing a website and a product out into the online arena does not automatically mean that the site will be successful.
If the website design employed on the site is poorly constructed, then it simply will not be successful. Yet, curiously, many people present poorly constructed websites to their own detriment. This is clearly not the path to success!
The Psychology of Web Design
When it comes to web design , like any other form of advertising, there is a great deal of psychology employed in the actual design. While this may seem like a ‘heavy handed' description that infers notions of “psycho-babble” and mysticism, the reality is that the term psychology simply refers to gaining the appropriate response from the individual who is browsing the website.
That is to say, the owner of the website has the website designed so that the person who is browsing the website eventually follows along with the plans of the website owner. For example, if the purpose of the website is to sell and item, it needs to be designed in such a way that the person skimming the site feels comfortable enough to make the requisite purchase.
If the purpose of the website is to attract daily or weekly readers (this is the goal of an online website, for example), then the website design must be one that attracts people's eyes and instills in them the desire to return. You simply can not slop things together and hope for the best. While that might be a less expensive undertaken, it will also be an unsuccessful one.
An Example of Bad Website Design
Here is a classic example of misguided website design : there was a website that sought to provide an online educational service where one would pay tuition for the service and take courses online. The homepage of the website featured a 700 word description of the product presented in single placed format and in a font size of 9.
Needless to say, it was virtually impossible to decipher what the website was selling because the massive verbiage utilized mostly featured repeating numerous (or, more aptly described, NUMEROUS) statements of how great the product was without ever pinpointing what exactly was being offered or, for that matter, whether it was being offered for free or if it was selling a product. When you can not decipher whether or not something is a charity or a for profit business, then you have a mega problem with the website design ! (Needless to say, the website was overhauled after a few weeks and shaped into a more coherent format)
An Example of Good Website Design
So what did the aforementioned folks who unleashed such an awful website do to reverse their fortunes? They drastically cut back on the text that was present down to 115 words; they added a few graphics and pictures; the added a catch phrase at the top of the homepage clearly defining what they were selling; and they added an RSS news feed to the homepage to help attract people to the site on a daily basis.
While these revisions did not automatically translate their business into a multimillion dollar revenue generator, the revisions did yield increased traffic and sales. It also made the website much more search engine friendly and this was a major contributor to the eventual success of the site. In short, proper website design can yield tremendous results. |