Solving Your Customer's Problem
Designing for ROI Should Be Your First Concern
06.21.06
Greg Gage, Project Manager
Published by Brian Charlonis, Account Manager
Edited by Chris Rinaldi, Account Manager & Copywriter
The question you should ask yourself as you look into various design ideas is, “What is my end goal for investing time and money in this site?” If the answer has to do with getting some kind of a return on your investment there are some basic page design tips that need to serve as an anchor to your efforts.
Don't lose sight of your message
Your product or service provides a unique solution to your customer, that's why you are in business. Take a look at your homepage. If that message isn't there, or if it is lost amongst other less important information, it is probably time to make some changes.
Make the most of your real estate
Given the typical users monitor size and resolution you have precious little space to grab the user's attention and keep it. Fancy Flash movies are real attention getters but unless the presentation directly addresses the user's problem your prospect will say "neat"…and then go somewhere else. Here are some quick tips on the what, when and where of design:
“What is my end goal for investing time and money in this site?”
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The What - Content should take up a minimum of half and perhaps even closer to 80% of your page. This doesn't mean straight text. These are the items that specifically relate to your message. Navigation is a necessary evil that is not a goal in itself and should be minimized. If you have to have advertising, count it as part of the remaining 20% or so which means you may need to lighten your navigation footprint.
The When - Users should be able to immediately identify answers to their primary questions. With each click your user has to make to figure out "what's in it for me?" your odds of loosing them increase exponentially. That means knowing the most likely information your users would seek and then giving them what they want as quickly as possible.
The Where - The average user tends to scan a page starting from the upper left hand corner and then work their way down to the lower right hand corner. You should keep this in mind when placing various different design elements on your page.
Oops
Pages can look completely different on different browsers (or even different browser versions) and at different resolutions. We have even seen cases where whole navigation bars disappear in particular browser versions. Before you put your pages up for the world to see, take some time to test using different browsers (Netscape 4.0+ and IE 4.0+) and resolutions (minimum 800x600).
More to follow
These are just a few basic tips to help you turn a web development cost into an investment. The Worx Group will be sharing more tips and ideas in articles to come.
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