MySource Matrix Section Name

Seven Deadly Sins of Web Design

 Download this white paper (.pdf format)

Continuing our 7 series (although I fear its time is nearly at an end!), and hot on the heels of 7 Habits of Highly Effective Web Strategies, comes this, our latest offering....

Sloth, pride, lust....from time to time we suffer from them all. But when it comes to the web, it seems all too easy to fall into the same fiery traps. Heres Netfeeders view on the ones to avoid:

Sin One: STASIS Not using the web as a communications tool

A static web site is a vanity exercise. Its a piece of virtual brochureware. If youre creating a web strategy then you should be in it for the right reasons. A web strategy should be a communications exercise that supports your wider sales, marketing, support and growth goals.

So think of the web as a mouthpiece for your organisation. Technology today is such that advanced tools that help you communicate more effectively with your web audience can be introduced at no or low cost. For example, content management systems can be built using open source software, enabling you to offer personalised browsing experiences that speak on a more onetoone basis with key audiences. New instant messaging applications can be deployed for next to nothing, allowing your sales teams to chat intimately with site users when they push a chat now button (these applications are extremely cool they also allow you to assist users in navigating your site...like a virtual ground control system! So youre not just in charge of the runway ­ you also get to land their plane!). And open source knowledge bases and ticketing systems can also be designed at low cost enabling you to proactively address your customer support requirements...and, even better, have your customers help other customers through things like discussion boards and FAQ listings.

Sin Two: PARTIALITY Not thinking holistically

Another big sin is not thinking about your other sales, marketing and communication channels, and not considering your wider audiences (for ­ lest you forget just beyond your obsession with your customers lies your relationship with your business partners, suppliers and investors!).

The web does not exist in a vacuum this is one of the big lessons we learned with the fall of the new economy. Rather, its a complementary channel that supports everything else you do from a sales, marketing and customer service perspective.

Everything you say or do online touches your audience in a way that affects other parts of your business. So, if you offer customer support on your web site, then youd best make sure that your phone support crew know about it and are plugged into the system (preferably by having a seat at the planning table) because your customers expect them to be! Likewise, if youre launching an email campaign for lead acquisition, then youd best ensure that your sales team has a handle on it....

Sin Three: SQUANDERING Not merchandising your content

With a strategic plan in place, the next big sin is not merchandising your content and services properly. In the planning phase its easy to get confused. The home page is key, right!? So lets shove links to ALL our content there!? Wrong!

Theres only so much the average site user can cope with, and so creating a home page that looks like a car crash is a bad idea. Instead, work to a proper content plan that covers your site objectives down to the level of specifying which content and which site services should be provided to specific user groups. This is not rocket science. If your strategy is sound then you should know who you are building a site for and why. From this point, its a simple whiteboard exercise to draw page mockups (aka wireframes) that match your site objectives to your user requirements. For example, if your objective is to generate leads, then make sure that links to leadgenerating services such as newsletter and white paper subscriptions are prominent on key pages (and get the other stuff the hell out of the way!).

Sin Four: DESIGNOPHILIA Forgetting who your users are (or why youre doing it in the first place!!)

Unfortunately, some folks lose sight of the fact that they are designing for a purpose and seem hell bent on introducing as much Flash animation to a page as possible. The web is a great leveller for the creative mind. Because its infinitely measurable (down to the level of who clicked on what), then the design process must at all times be accountable to the greater good of your business strategy. Most users dont have (or want) the latest browser plugin. Some are still living in the world of 56k dial up modems. Others dont have audio.

Whatever and whoever you are designing for, the golden rule is Dont make me think. (A phrase that has been immortalised in the best web design guidebook ever). Unlike print media, the web is full of idiosyncrasies and technological variations. This means that you have to design for the majority share of your users and for technology that they possess (eg, Internet Explorer version 5.5 rather than 6).

Also, its important to respect the fact that the design conventions that have prevailed have done so for a reason. Amazon uses tabs for its primary navigation because its simple to comprehend and easy to use, not because its the most visually attractive way it could have done it! So, use these conventions to your benefit ­ and dont flout them, because if you do then you are more likely to be frustrating your users than breaking important new ground in web design.

Sin Five: INCOHERENCE Not organizing your content

Information can be organized in many ways, but not all of them are equally useful. A shop may have a store plan that is a visual representation of the physical store. This is great for navigating instore because the map and the physical location correspond with immediacy. However, this style of map is redundant on the web because our grasp of space and objects becomes more than a little warped online.

The golden rule here is that nobody reads your web site like a book....or a plan....or a story. Nobody! they may arrive at your site right in the middle via a Google search query, in a sub page of a sub section of the secondary navigation. Hence, when planning, designing and writing the site, dont think of it as an A to Z exercise.

With this in mind, content must be organised coherently and in such a way to make a users location clear to them at all times. And theres no perfect solution to this issue. Try arranging content in different ways to find the best fit. Should it be listed alphabetically? Grouped into categories? Sorted by popularity? You should play with different structures to find the best one and remember that no two structures should be mutually exclusive. Offering multiple navigation conventions lets users choose their own most meaningful path through your information.

Sin Six: ENTRAPMENT ­ Causing user anxiety

Quid Pro Quo is a well recognised feature of good websites. A user will give you some personal information and you will give them something they want ­ a whitepaper, a demo, or a discount. But users are savvy to the underhand doings of the worst of the web and carry with them a mistrust of anyone asking for something as personal as an email address.

Now, since you have their best interests at heart, the sin here is not giving good assurance of your honest intentions. Do you publicise your privacy policy? Is it written by a professional lawyer? Is your subscription process immediately reassuring? Do you unwittingly intimate that you will spam them with unrelated junk mail, or do they feel they will learn something from your correspondence? Good intentions arent always enough. Wear your commitment to honest communications on your sleeve. Give wary users the solace that youre going to the right thing...and dont make them sift through an acre of legalise before they can believe you.

Sin Seven: MYOPIA Not looking ahead

Sites created without growth plans become useless very quickly. They get cluttered and cramped and soon they become unusable. Your site will change over time youll want to add information, delete old pages, incorporate new technologies, and perhaps give it a complete design overhaul. The best way to handle such changes is to come up with a plan for growth now, while youre in the early stages of design. Identify new sections and features youll want to add and figure out where theyll fit within the current site structure. Determine how often youre going to update the site and draw up a schedule for maintenance. Planning to build a partner portal in the future? Then figure out now where itll go today!

For further information or advice, feel free to contact us.