Gem Paper

Design Your Web Site for Maximum Impact

If you’ve surfed the web lately, you know that for every effective web site there are scores that are confusing, time-consuming to wade through and that lack key information.

Good design can ensure that your organization’s web site delivers information to consumers quickly, efficiently and conveniently. Whether you’re using in-house staff or outside vendors to design your site, here are some tips and suggestions to enhance its effectiveness:

• Good sites start with solid content, organized to support a specific objective. Decide whether you want to sell products, establish or enhance an image for your organization, create a library of company information, or achieve some other objective, then tailor the content to fit.
• Think of your home page as the table of contents or a directory to your organization. If your company is small, you may only need one page. Larger companies may need to add sub - pages for additional information. Your home page plus your sub pages equals your web site.
• When designing a web site, remember to think in terms of computer-screen-sized chunks of text and graphics.
• Make sure your company name and logo are prominently featured on your home page. Don’t leave visitors guessing as to who they’re interacting with.
• Use headlines of the information and products on your web site that users can click on to access more detailed information. Possible topics include: press releases; sales materials; catalogs, registration forms or surveys; contact information; a map of your location or date of last update.
• For web sites that include a lot of information - a catalog of 5,000 machine parts, for example - consider providing search capabilities to help visitors locate the information they need. Another good idea for large sites is a site map that shows linked pages and the information they contain.
• Don’t get carried away with photographs - they can cause frustrating delays that turn visitors off. One solution is to create large and small versions of the same picture and only show the small one. Let visitors know they can view the larger picture by clicking on the smaller one. Another option is to let visitors know how big a file is and how long it will take to transmit. Likewise, keep your graphics lean - about 6K per image is a good number to shoot for.
• When you do use pictures and graphics, make sure the accompanying text appears on screen first, while the picture is still transmitting. That way, visitors will have something to read while they wait.
• Make your interface simple and clear. The interface, or visual display of digital information, has a lot to do with your site’s effectiveness. Too many sites use dark or gaudy backgrounds, type that’s difficult to read, or other distracting elements. A quick rule of thumb: If a Web page design wouldn’t work on the printed page, it probably won’t work well on the screen, either.
• Use icons to help readers find information quickly. Symbols can speed your visitors to the information they want - if the symbols are logical and easy to understand. Luckily, you don’t need to start from scratch. A variety of icons, buttons and backgrounds are available as shareware.

While these design suggestions are only a start, they should get you thinking in the right direction. Make the information on your web site easy to find, access and understand, and you’re well on your way to maximizing its marketing impact.

For example - consider providing search capabilities to help visitors locate the information they need. Another good idea for large sites is a site map that shows linked pages and the information they contain.