SMOOTH SAILING

Create a clear navigation scheme.
AS YOU DESIGN YOUR SITE, remember to keep your site structure simple so that users are not bewildered by too many possibilities. You need to strike abalance between establishing your identity and making sure your visitors arenot overwhelmed by the unfamiliar. When structuring your site, decide how many pages you’re going to have, what is going to be on them and how they will link to each other. Choose graphics and icons that enhance the content without confusing the user. Pictures of adorable kids of different ages, for example, might work well if you’re selling children’s clothes, toys or books or have a baby-sitting or day-care service, but they won’t work if you’re providing legal or architectural services. In other words, your graphics should be relevant to your business and the image you’re trying to create. You should provide relevant links to enhance the user experience. If you have a website for convention planners, make it easy for visitors to link to city sites where they can find information about theaters, river cruises, museums, hotels, restaurants and more so convention attendees can check out recreational activities on their own.
SHOW THEM THE WAY
Whether you use an outside designer or do it yourself, concentrate on simplicity, readability and consistency. Cue your visitors with graphics, colors and fonts that make sense to them. Check out other sites to see what combinations of fonts, colors and graphics appeal to you, and incorporate what you like into your site—but be mindful of copyright rules and proprietary information.
Make sure your navigation lets visitors find what they want in two or three clicks. Don’t makethem sift through loads of information to track down what they’re looking for. Site surfers want to feel like they’re in charge, so you need to make it easy and enjoyable for them to browse your site. Use no more than five navigation bars and don’t make visitors back up three or four links to get from one content area to another. Include a link back to the homepage on every page.
You can personalize some of your design and navigation to make the user experience easier and more intuitive. Let’s say you’re a Realtor. Your navigation could look something like this: Finally, if you’re selling products, you’ll want to make payment a snap and give customers an easy way to pay you. Consider including an online order form and a toll-free ordering number or fax line for people who don’t want to use their credit cards online. Once you think you have a good navigation scheme, it’s time to test it. Ask friends, colleagues and customers to try out your site and let you know how well they were able to get around. Ask your grandmother and your friend who’s new to the web to take a look. Their feedback will tell you if your site has the right information and is easy to navigate. Take some time to refine your site, and it will pay off in a better web experience for all your visitors. The elements you choose to highlight on your site will vary with your business. You may want to include some or all of the following:
■Customer testimonials
■Professional bio, background or credentials
■Guarantees, warranties and return policies
■Shipping costs and tracking information
■Special discounts or promotional offers
■Contact information
■Privacy policy
■Site map (This lists all the pages on your site and is typically organized in a hierarchical
fashion. A site map helps visitors and search engines find pages on your site.)
■Buttons at the bottom of each page that send users back to your homepage
An easy-to-navigate, well-organized site puts your business in its best light and makes it simple for visitors to find what they’re looking for. Keep your customers in mind at all times as you create and update your site, and you’ll be well on your way to site success.
BEST PRACTICES
The rules of site design are not complicated. Just keep these dos and don’ts in mind:
Do:
■Make your site easy to navigate.
■Create a consistent look and feel throughout your site by using similar fonts, colors and layouts.
■Make sure your website works on more than one browser, e.g., Internet Explorer and Firefox
■Put the most important information near the top of the page so users don’t have to scroll down to find it.
■Use headlines, icons, bullets, boldface words and color to draw attention to important content.
■Include your phone number on every page.
■Use high-quality graphics and photos, including your logo. Make sure the images are crisp but don’t take too much time to load.
Don’t:
■Use text and color combinations that are too busy or include distracting visuals that make the site hard to read.
■Let the content, especially the links on your website, become outdated.
■Include graphics or other design elements that slow down site performance.
■Put too much clutter on any one page. For more don’ts,