Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

This was posted on BBC`s website today and is a great article for all of you who are designing a website.  This article explains users website behaviors and what the design and marketing of your website should focus on:


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7417496.stm


-------------------------

Aaron Wood
CEO
San Diego Dream Weavers
http://www.sddreamweavers.com
awood@sddreamweavers.com

New and improved! Now with blogging goodness!
http://www.sddreamweavers.com/san-diego-seo-marketing-blog/

"Web users were also getting very frustrated with all the extras, such as widgets and applications, being added to sites to make them more friendly.

Such extras are only serving to make pages take longer to load, said Dr Nielsen."

 

I agree completely, thanks for the link!

Dr. Nielsen is The Web Guru yet as with any other guru don`t buy every single word he`s saying.

I wish more web designers/developers were adhering to the usability concepts. But even more I wish that clients who are not designers by trade would not dictate professional designers how to make websites.

Hi,

I also don`t think people should listen to everything he said.   His research is correct because Webmasters don`t understand how Search Engines work and `Blinded" by the word SEO.  His research on deep linking / home page is correct because 9/10 the wrong user is visiting a website.

We have built sites that are simple / basic / web 2.0 / that get far less CTR than a social networking site with all the bells and the whistles in the world.  If you build and market an internet business to the correct target market what he said doesn`t matter.

If I didn`t like how StartUpNation.com was built it would not mean I wouldn`t explorer the site.  It just so happens people looking to start an internet business is our companies exact target market so no matter how poorly built it would be (it is not...it is very nice) I would still read, explorer, and use it.

So what is research should be on is web developers who are just web developers...not internet business developers.  You need a web developer who is not a robot, who can think, who can market, who understands the business side of a website...after all you are technically building a internet business...not a website.

Jeff

I think that usability is necessary for us as designers to follow. However, what`s more important is taking into account one`s target market and what kinds of sites/features they are known to like. If you`re not sure, Visit some of the more well-known sites that you know your target audience frequents. As someone mentioned earlier, social media sites are quite popular despite the various widgets and features they offer.

I don`t think that a site loading slowly has anything to do with the number or kind of widgets. Widgets are usually hosted on another server (the original server/site the widget came from). If one did happen to have a problem widget, I could see it not loading up quickly within its own space, but I can`t see it slowing down an entire site. I feel that those issues have more to do with the number & size of images and other media hosted directly on the site, as well as the hosting itself.

There are certain things you should do to ensure that your site is geared toward the markets you wish to reach. This means that because every market is different, every site will be different depending on who it is targeting. Design is one of those things that really doesn`t have any common "rules." Usability is one thing, but design is a completely different animal. I have seen poorly-designed (not pretty to my eye) sites that get a great amount of traffic because even though they may not be pretty, they have the kind of content that users want and they are easy to navigate. I say, design for your target market, not to be in line with a set of "rules."

I saw someone also mention about clients that are not web designers dictating how a site should be designed to a professional. This is probably one of the most annoying things that a designer will come across, but consider this. From a customer`s point of view, they just know that they want what they want, when they want it because they paid. Many clients do not know what goes into certain processes and so they do not take things like time into consideration. I recently had this problem with a former client. I think the best way to handle this is client education. They are not mind-readers, so it goes without saying that they won`t know what goes into a process or how long it takes to complete a task unless you tell them. Of course, it doesn`t work for all clients. However, I think the majority will understand once you bother to explain the process and your plan of action to them.