How To Turn Your Website Design Into A Disaster}

Marketing

Submitted by: Penny Latif

During many years of experience there are many mistakes that we are witness to but the most often occurring is the grande design fiasco.

Everybody has an idea of what their site should look like in terms of look and feel. Color is important as is the overall layout. A careful questionnaire is usually used to assess the clients target market and then target location. Age groups, business nature, are all factors that blend in to make a carefully customized design according to a persons/ companies design requirement.

Based on all of this useful information a good designer will in the first two attempts create something that will be practical, functional and hold the wow effect to keep visitors glued to the site once they get there.

But just like one of those disaster movies where everything is fine until the earth starts to shake, this is the calm before the storm.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tezhs5b-Smk[/youtube]

So heres how it starts, the first time web person suddenly remembers his last art class (which may have been 45 years ago) and wants shadowing around the letters and a mixture of five different colors and squirly fonts.

After careful consultation with his wife, mother, mother in law and the neighbors he then decides his site is not complete without a photo of Mitzy the cat who sadly passed away last year.

Then while dropping his kids to school he realizes how a picture of a baby is adorable and how his site cant possibly go live without the baby photo. Imagine the traffic he would generate!

Finally although he wanted a site that would display his plumbing techniques he decides to make the most of his webspace and also sell the garden gnomes he makes on the weekends. Plus the wife does some really wicked cupcakes and could sell a few on the site during the holidays.

The result as you can understand ends up looking like something made by a 12 year old playing with his new paint set with lots of stuff going on in different directions. The visitor is left wandering what he is looking at and why.

This sadly is how a site design goes wrong. After evaluation and the first 3 rounds your site should be good to go. It should have all the elements that will make the site work, web 2.0 layout to keep the focus of the visitor where it should be on your core business purpose. A good web company will have Web Designers with usually at least 2 years of experience in the field of design (ours have 5) and will know what works and what doesnt work. Using more than 3 colors is also a big no- no (unless your business is selling paint!).The colors distract and make your site look gaudy and too cluttered.

Our research shows your window of opportunity to wow your first time visitor to your site is only 2 seconds. If your site doesnt make sense and is too cluttered you will lose that valuable opportunity and no he wont come back.

So although your feedback is essential towards the initial design phase, there should also be faith placed in the capabilities of the designer. A weird wacky layout might work if your site is a simple brochure but it also might be detrimental from a business sense if it makes it hard for the visitor to find something to buy.

The exceptions perhaps to this article would be those whose sites are all about art, designs, all about image and not user friendliness. Those whose priority doesnt lie in SEO and have an established base of users and a renowned brand name. Most of these people usually have a very clear focus of their design and can be helped to create their vision avidly by designers.

Always remember the best sites in the world are the simplest. Doesnt Google have a simple search bar and then very little else? No flash, no shooting stars and no photos of Mitzy.

About the Author: Green Dome Web Solutions145-157 St. John StreetEC1V 4PY, LondonUnited Kingdom

greendomewebsolutions.comgreendomewebservices.com

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