Jul
How To Make A Website That Works
Have you ever visited a website and found yourself being sucked into it? What makes that happen on one site, while you only spend a few seconds on another, even though it may have the same content?
Cookbooks may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but they make a good example of how to design a good website versus a bad one. Let’s take a look at a couple of sites and see what makes one stand out from the other.
Cookbooks are a good example because there are so many of them, although it’s a specialized niche. You can find cookbooks for every conceivable type of cuisine or diet. When a person goes to a cookbook website, especially if it’s their first visit, they are not going to want to waste their time browsing for the one they want.
An experienced web designer is well-aware of this. He is not going to waste words on the homepage. He’s going to have professional copy that entices the reader to stay, but the emphasis is going to be on making it easy for the visitor to find what they’re looking for. His catalog of books will be the focus of the home page.
His index will be clearly marked, so that within one or two clicks of the mouse, the reader can find what they’re looking for. One visitor will be looking for Mexican food, while another will be looking for cake decorating books. On the homepage, any visitor knows that if they are looking for regional cuisine, they will find it on a tab that says, ‘World Cuisine.’ If they are looking for books about cakes, they’ll find them under a tab that directs them to ‘Mouthwatering Desserts’.
What is not a good idea is to list all the books on the site on the homepage or even to break down the categories too quickly. People don’t want to spend time on a homepage. They want to get to the point quickly. Another thing they don’t want is to have to scroll down the page and read about what a wonderful site they’ve just discovered. If they want to learn how to decorate cake, they should feel like they’ve come to the right place within seconds.
It’s always a good idea to offer a search bar if you’ve got a lot of products to offer. However, don’t rely on it. It’s there for the people who know what they’re looking for, but remember, they probably found your site after doing a search on a big search engine. They should feel like they’ve already found what they’re looking for. Another reason not to make the search bar too prominent is because a person looking for cake decorating designs may be led to just one book. You want to offer them a variety of unexpected choices.
In a nutshell, there are three elements to a winning homepage. Make an eye-catching, themed design, keep your content to a minimum and make your site easy to navigate.
