I've been doing website design since the beginning of the Internet back in the mid 1990s, and here's something I've learned. In time, web pages and websites become more complex, thus more complicated, and therefore websites become less useful. I am not yet sure why this is happening. Perhaps it's because you keep adding various items to an already existing design or possibly it's because too many masters keep getting their way. In any case, there are numerous examples of once easy-to-use websites becoming overly cluttered and less easy-to-use over time. It simply happens.
This clutter may take many forms. Sometimes it's multiple content modules, all competing for attention. Sometimes it's an overabundance of elements of design, each getting in the way of the others. Sometimes it's technology gone wild with a lot of moving elements going nowhere. Regardless of the cause or causes (also it can be more than one), the result is a web page that many visitors find too confusing to make use of.
It doesn't have to be this way. In fact, probably the most popular sites on the Web would be the most simple. These websites have resisted the temptation to clutter up their home pages and instead present a simple and clear message for their visitors.
Take, since the best example, Google by most accounts the most-visited site on the Web. Why is Google so popular? Obviously, it's because it's such a useful site, offering the most effective search results on the Web. But it's also because that's pretty much all you find on Google's webpage; there's no confusing what it really does or how you can do it.
And here's another thing. Google has made only minimal changes to its home page in the decade or so since its inception. The organization has resisted the temptation to dance with the design du jour; it kept its simple design consistent while its competitors have swung wildly back and forth. That's good branding for you.
Compare Google with its fading competitor, Yahoo!. The Yahoo! home page tries to do so many things that it's simple to miss the fact that it's a search engine. And the company has taken care of immediately the Google competition by changing its site design on a fairly regular basis. You never know what you're going to find whenever you visit Yahoo!; it's an inconsistent, confusing mess.
While we're on the topic of keeping things simple, let's consider all the fancy technological and design elements that many websites use today. I'm talking Flash animations, videos, and those things that in general exist to "wow" site visitors.
In other words, everything that visitors hate. That's right, those fancy elements your technology and design people love are roundly despised by many web users. People would like to do what they want to do; they don't desire to be interrupted in their quests. And trust me, animations and movies and things that go "pop" are interruptions unwanted and unnecessary interruptions. They get in the way of getting to in which you want to go.
Like a user, I'm sure you've experienced this. You go to a site, and before you can even visit the home page, you're greeted with a few sort of animation or video. You're forced to sit through this thing, which takes several seconds (or more) to load and then about the same time to play before you can begin looking for the information you want.
It's a huge roadblock, one that many visitors simply click from without ever going to the site beyond. Now, why would a website do that? It's the online equivalent of making customers visiting a bricks and mortar store to wait outside while you put onto a little play, and also you don't let them the front door before production is completed.
If you did this in the real world, most of your customers would certainly walk away. So why would you do this online? It's the same with other technological and design gimmicks. Yeah, they're fun, and I'm sure you and also your design and technology staffs enjoy them. But will they truly serve your site visitors or merely annoy them?
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Note: This article was sent to us by: Keith Norris at 03142011
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