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| The visual aim of any commercial site should be to capture the audience's imagination, whilst putting the user at ease through clean, clear and structured layout.
Content must be engaging, functionality useful and products inspiring. |
| Usability is the primary factor in keeping site visitors. It includes navigation, clarity of content and ease of use. With over 100 documented techniques, this is arguably the most important factor of all online design.
Stimulating content is also fundamental, as it is the primary reason for most site visits. The secret when creating content is to keep costs down by focusing and maximising the potential of what is readily available. Regular changing content needs to be well planned.
Functionality is the third element, which draws customers back to a site. To succeed it needs to be useful, reliable and cost effective to develop. Examples include advanced searches, interactive product showcases or multi-language support. |
| Enticing and assisting visitors to purchase builds site profitability. Indeed it should proceed traffic driving through digital marketing.
The starting point is to understand you visitor. This can be achieved through analysis of the site statistics, listening to customer feedback and for a more in depth understanding usability studies. |
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| Once consumers are understood, journeys should be created, by adopting clear navigation, eye-catching signposts and clear calls to action. |
| The way a site is structured and ultimately built is critical for a number of reasons. Firstly it affects natural search engine results. Secondly it helps create appealing areas for potential advertisers.
Thirdly and most importantly, it ensures flexibility for future evolutions of a site, as it can be costly to redesign or rebuild structures when a site changes over time. |
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