Stumbling Blocks to Web Site Success - Forget About You, Think About Them
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Thinking about what you'd like rather than what your visitors and customers would like is actually an easy trap to fall into. After all, when you design your web site, you do it with the idea of guiding your visitor along a particular path to get them to do certain things. But you can only do that to a point; visitors don't necessary like to feel as if they're being herded. They come to your site with purposes of their own, and they want to be able to accomplish certain tasks.
Rich Brooks, president of web design and Internet marketing company Flyte New Media, gives a great example of this problem. “What if you went into Target and they had organized everything alphabetically by manufacturer name?...That might make the lives of Target's employees easier, but it doesn't help the customer...Too many businesses organize their sites based on their products and services, and not on visitor needs.”
Dell's home page serves as a good example of a company that got it right. It's actually organized in a couple of different ways. Horizontally, near the middle of the page, they display links to take you to their selection of laptops; desktops and all-in-one; servers, storage and networking; printers, ink and toner; TVs, software and accessories; and support and help. Each of these links feature appropriate images above them to help guide customers.
But just past the “support and help” link is a vertical list of other links. These divide the information on the site into “solutions for” specific customer segments: home and home office; small and medium business; large businesses; government, education, healthcare and life sciences; and partners. By having both sets of links, Dell caters to visitors that think about what they need in two different ways.
Set up your site so that it will be easy for your customers to accomplish their goals. Don't frustrate them by, for example, hiding your contact information or underlining words that aren't links. If you recognize anything I've mentioned in this article as issues for your site, look into fixing the problems. You'll find that you're getting out of your own way when it comes to your web site's success. Good luck!
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