Did you know that there is a psychology to designing a web site? Most marketing executives and web designers do not realize this. As a result, there are thousands of poorly designed web sites floating around in cyberspace at this very moment!
Understanding this psychology could make or break an online business. An e-business web site that does not implement even the basic design principles mentioned in this article could frustrate your potential customer. This translates to a lost sale and chances are, you will never see your customer again.
It’s All a Matter of Convenience…
Have you ever noticed that the most popular breakfast cereals sit on the grocery shelves at eye level? The reason being, you, the consumer, usually grab the item that you see first. Cereal companies pay good money for eye level shelving space.
This principle holds true with the online shopping experience. A skilled web site designer knows the end user wants to find their goods quickly and easily. What does the end user find 90% of the time?
The Self Serving Web Site
The average internet shopper will generally find a huge company logo where a featured product should be. All too often the marketing executive will focus on trying to establish their company’s image, rather than highlighting their company’s products. Without realizing it, they have blocked their front entrance.
To survive as a dot com business, a company’s branding must be their product or service, not their logo.
When developing a web site, careful thought must be given in order to achieve your desired results. Do you want to sell widgets? Then put your widgets where people can see them. Make it easy for your customer to find the widget THEY want right away.
One effective trend in design is to minimize the company identification. A logo may be only 1/2 inch tall located in the upper left hand corner of the home page. This serves to identify the company – yet does not get in the way of the finicky shopper.
Navigation links or buttons should be located at the top of the page. The customer should not have to search for them.
Link titles should be direct and to the point. Anticipate what your customer is looking for. “Store”, for example, makes more sense (especially on an international level) than “tag sale”.
In many cases, being too wordy can turn customers away. Copy should be brief. If you are posting lengthy blocks of text (such as what you are reading now), keep paragraphs to no more than two or three sentences.
Avoid large or busy graphics. Keep each page of your web site clean and well organized. The less the customer has to look at, the faster they can purchase your product or service!
The most successful e-commerce web sites implement these principles. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, Amazon.com tops the list. CDnow.com rates in the top 5. Both serve as good examples of smart psychological design.
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