credit: JOE M500

Regardless of your intended conversion or the type of users you attract, the following are some general principles that will help your website communicate clearly with anyone.

1. Avoid Clutter
2. Create a Visual Path
3. Be Consistent About Everything…Almost
4. Break Color Scheme for Action Elements
5. Scanning, Not Reading
6. Put the Reading Somewhere
7. Build Content Top, Left, Right then Bottom
8. Streamline Your Processes (Don’t Make Them Think)
9. Professional Work For Professional Results

1. Avoid Clutter

Users have a goal. If you have a lot going on—links, images, animation—the goal is harder to reach. White space is your friend. Leave some space to let users know what is important; let your design support your call to action. Don’t be afraid to use images and color, but make sure your design supports your primary user objective. Cart icons and telephone numbers are a good example of important information that becomes obscured when you have too much going on.

2. Create a Visual Path

Creating distinct levels of attention will help move users through your action path. But, if you have a number of elements that all ask for the same amount of attention none of them will be compelling. We know from endless eye tracking tests that people are going to start at the top of your page and move to subordinate elements. Advertising guru Joe Sugarman is well known for saying that every line you write is intended to pull you into the next line. Images can, and should, do the same.

3. Be Consistent About Everything…Almost

After only a few repetitions people build expectations. Help your users by fulfilling their expectations. Leave your navigation in the same place, lay down a trail to the next step, and make calls to action similar if they are on the same path.

Don’t go wild with fonts. Choose a serif and a sans serif to use in your headers, body, and graphics and use them the same way throughout your site. You don’t need more than two fonts. Your body text should be 10 to 14 points tall to be readable. Be sparing with markup like bold and italics—the less you use them the more effect they have.

Likewise be clear with your colors. Create a palette that contains only a couple of brand-distinctive colors and a neutral base across the site.

4. Break Color Scheme for Action Elements

Beautifully rendered, tasteful calls to action don’t incite action. If you want action, make that element the most important thing on the page. Well-rendered is fine, but make it a color that stands out. Attract attention by making these elements incongruous in an otherwise harmonious layout.

5.  Scanning, Not Reading

This entire section is built as a numbered list. You can get the same information from the bold heading as you do from reading the trailing text. Use captions on images, headers, and text markup to introduce the important points quickly and efficiently.

6. Put the Reading Somewhere

Some people do want every detail. In general, your visitors need more information than you think. Provide links to extended information where available; do not use “Click Here For More Information.” That is meaningless without context. Use “More Information About______.” Now the user doesn’t even need to read what precedes the link and the link passes some useful anchor text.

7. Build Content Top, Left, Right then Bottom

Follow the natural order of attention with your elements and you will achieve simple interaction that your users don’t have to think about. Don’t leave your important message at the bottom.

8. Streamline Your Processes (Don’t Make Them Think)

There is an amazing book dedicated to this subject: Don’t Make Me Think by Steven Krug. Every time your process stops, even for a second, your site experiences a loss of efficiency, and possibly a conversion. People have a great attention span when they know they are on the right path, but when the path becomes difficult or confusing, your visitors will become impatient.

9. Professional Work For Professional Results

The bottom line is that doing business on the Internet means taking the Internet seriously. If you treat your website as a business it will return the favor. For years companies have spent $10,0000-$100,000 to achieve noticeable, memorable placement in phone directories. Clearly those days are gone. Creating and maintaining a remarkable, usable website means investing in your resources: design, content, navigation, and advertising. You shouldn’t blow the bank making a website, but remember that you get what you pay for.

Having guidelines will help you bring some common sense to your projects as you improve your site. Sometimes it is hard to remember what it is like being a user while you are making your changes. Match up goals with things that you can measure. Each of the nine ideas above addresses at least one basic need that is independent of product or service.

Take a moment at the beginning and end of the project to ask what problem you are looking to solve and what new problems you may be creating.