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08.06.07
Design Your Way To Higher Conversions
 By Stoney deGeyter
During the design phase of building a website all too often we find that the end result is really nothing more than what somebody decided "looked good".
In some cases it's a combination (or compromise) of what a handful of individuals have determined to be "good enough". What many fail to realize is that web design and visitor usability go hand in hand.
How the site is developed, along with the underlying coding structure, plays a significant role on whether your site meets the usability requirements of your audience. Below are a number of individual elements that must be considered in every website design. While each plays a minor role over the total usability of a website, together they add up to be much more than the sum of their parts.
Look and feel
The overall look and feel of your site must meet your target audience's expectation. It's not enough just to look good, you will have visitors with industry specific wants and needs. Meet them.
Industry best practices
Site must be consistent with best practices and usability guidelines established by other sites in the same industry.
Design simplicity
Reduce visual noise as much as possible. Keeping the website design simplified keeps visitors interacting with your website rather than hunting through unnecessary design elements.
Searchability
Information on your site, including content, navigation, product categorization and site-search, must be clearly laid out and easy to understand and be effective at getting visitors to areas of the site they need.
Link descriptions
Adding descriptions such as link titles and alt attributes within each link can help overall usability, providing a reference to what should be expected if the visitor clicks the link. Encompassing more descriptive text within the link text is also highly valuable.
Links organized with lists
When referencing specific areas of your site and/or products all in a single paragraph, it can be beneficial to break the content into bulleted lists. This allows for easy scanning for desired information.
Breadcrumbs
Using breadcrumb menus provides an easy reference to the current page a visitor resides on, as well as their location in the overall site structure. These visual cues enhance the user's experience, even if not actually used.
Contact and support info
Links to contact, about us, and other customer support pages must be easy to find and obviously accessible to all visitors regardless of page or architectural location and obvious to access.
Font size
Font size should rarely be less than 10 points. Larger fonts are easier to read which can help gain conversions.
Font face
The Verdana font was developed specifically for web use for its ease on the eyes when viewed on a computer monitor. Serif fonts such as Times should be avoided. Also keep the number of fonts used to a minimum.
Font scalability
Allow visitors to resize the text size in their browser by using scalable rather than fixed-width fonts. This allows visitors additional convenience based on their needs.
Continue reading this article.
About the Author:
Stoney deGeyter is president of Pole Position Marketing (www.PolePositionMarketing.com), a search engine optimization / marketing firm providing SEO and website marketing services since 1998. Stoney is also a part-time instructor at Truckee Meadows Community College, as well as a moderator in the Small Business Ideas Forum. He is the author of his E-Marketing Performance eBook and contributes daily to the E-Marketing Performance (www.eMarketingPerformance.com) marketing blog.
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