It’s a Work of Art, But Who’s Reading It?
One of the biggest mistakes a new website owner makes is not understanding the way a human ‘reads’ a website. If you are writing in big chunks of beautiful prose, spending a lot of time getting everything ‘just right’, read on. You are in for some eye opening tips that will save you time, energy and money.
Don’t Make Me Think
According to Steve Krug’s book, Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition
What’s more, you have only seconds (maybe nanoseconds) before find they something that catches their eye or they will click away. Spending valuable time showing them a crowded, confusing Home page is definitely a business killing mistake.
Try These Tips to Improve Your Website ‘Readability’
1. Visual Appeal. Think of your web page as more of a painting than beautiful prose. Take a step back and take a visual inspection. Ask yourself and your clients/friends:
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Does anything stand out, pull the eye, hook you in?
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Where does your eye go after that?
Evaluate the answers carefully. If this is the path that you want your visitor to take then hooray! If not, change it up!
2. Break It Up. Break large chunks of content up with graphics, subheadings, bold/colored fonts, and bulleted points. This type layout gives the reader the ability to scan the page and establish a reference framework.
3. Top Right Rule. Put your most important marketing message in the top right-hand corner of the home page. Studies have shown this is the natural flow of the eye. Often you’ll see a newsletter sign up or opt-in here. The logic being that if visitors do nothing else, leaving their email address gives you a chance to send follow up communications.
4. Navigation Bar. Put your navigation bar (your listing of web pages) across the top just below the logo/header. This is where most people expect it to be. Don’t fight it by listing your pages on the very top, bottom or on one of the sidebars. This is a huge mistake and I see so many owners making it because they want to stand out and ‘do something different’. While authenticity has much value, there are some basic structures that your visitors need to be able to rely on. Predictability here builds trust, confidence and will translate into more time on your site.
5. Above The Fold. Anything the visitor has to pagedown to see is called ‘below the fold’ and has a good chance of never being seen. Put your most important items ‘above the fold’.
Recommended Reading
Another easy way to test how visitors use your site is to do a real live test. Steve Krug gives a detailed description of how to do this in his book. Basically, you get a few peeps to sit down, go through the site, and narrate what they are doing and why. Then you can see what’s working and what’s not.
Next up in the Secret Weapons of Web Design Series, the importance of building a website that you can maintain yourself.
Please add your comments and questions below. I’d love to help anyway I can.