 | ||||
|
 |
|
|
|
| ||||
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
 Design inspiration Oct 1, 2005 12:00 PM By D. J. McKenna AN EXCELLENT company Web site is much more than a billboard in cyberspace. Instead, it creates an inviting and easy-to-use environment where prospective and existing clients can learn about the company and actually begin to transact business — at least on a limited scale. What a good Web site is not is a technological homage to the company or the Web designer who helped create the site. Technological homages are showy, forever-to-download sites that may look cool but are little more than severe impediments to e-commerce. The Webscape is littered with such sites. Don't add yours to the heap. “Usability rules the Web,” says Jakob Nielson, a principal in the Nielsen Norman Group, a Web design consultancy. “The Web is the ultimate customer-empowering environment. He or she who clicks the mouse gets to decide everything. It is so easy to go elsewhere; all the competitors in the world are but a mouse-click away.” In designing your own site, you'll need to start with a good Web-site-authoring tool that will enable you to design a basic site, which subsequently can be enhanced with supplementary specialty design programs. An authoring tool that gets good reviews in the PC press is Microsoft Front Page ($138, www.microsoft.com). Another that consistently gets rave reviews is DreamWeaver, by Macromedia ($326, www.macromedia.com). Many users say the DreamWeaver authoring program has a steeper learning curve than FrontPage but claim the extra effort is worth it. They say DreamWeaver is a much more versatile site-authoring tool. Once you've become comfortable with your Web-authoring program — or have found a Web designer to take on your project — you should incorporate the following key features into your site. Instant communication of purpose People serious about doing business on the Web want their Web pages served up fast and clear. That means your site needs to instantly communicate what you're about and what you can do for the visitor. It should not have elaborate animated introductions that take forever to download. “People often ask me, ‘What's the most important thing I should do to make sure my Web site is easy to use?’” says Steve Krug, author of a book about Web usability. “It's, Don't make me think. That is, as far as humanly possible, when I look at a Web page it should be self-evident. Obvious. Self-explanatory.” Emblematic of that design philosophy is 123Ag.com. Leaving no room for doubt about its primary business of ag retailing, the site offers quick jumps to key interest areas, small but effective graphics that are easy to download, and a home page that is configured to “fit” nearly all PC screens, no matter how small. Graphics and color You still can make a significant impression through the skillful use of graphics and color. Authoring programs like Microsoft Front Page come with a number of themed corporate page sets for those who would rather leave color coordination to others. If you plan on doing your own coloring, you'll want to pick colors that make sense and don't offend anyone. Companies designing sites for an international audience need to remain cognizant that colors, symbols and other graphic nuances have different meanings in different cultures, says Paul Fox, vice president of engineering at Excel Translations, which specializes in Web site localization. After you've leapt the cultural sensitivity hurdles, you may want to use an industrial-strength graphics program for your images, such as Adobe Photoshop ($468, www.adobe.com). Effortless navigation Once you've established what your site is about, take great pains to ensure that getting around the site is a snap, designers say. That means creating an intuitive navigation bar that enables a visitor to make quick jumps to key interest areas with a single click. If you have a fairly extensive site, you'll also want to use drop-down menus or similar tools that enable a visitor to “drill down” to specific categories of interest in a flash. Visitor communication interfaces Many commercial Web sites provide basic communication interactivity by posting e-mail addresses of key personnel and/or offering mailing lists. A mailing list allows users to communicate with one another. By joining a list, a user can share questions and comments with others interested in the same topics. You can experiment with mailing list technology for free at online services like Yahoo! Groups (groups.yahoo.com); MSN Groups (groups.msn.com); AOL Groups (groups.aol.com); and Topica (www.topica.com). Other companies feature chat rooms where visitors can ask questions about purchases or talk shop. Many of these chat rooms are hosted by remote application service providers such as LivePerson.com, InstantService.com, Live2Support.com and MayWeHelp.com. Costs for these services range from $9 to $99/month, depending on the features you would like. Automated business transactions Scores of software companies and application service providers offer ways to engage in e-commerce, accept job applications, get a quote back to a prospective customer and post forms that speed data directly from the Web to company databases for quick manipulation. AG RX (www.agrx.com), for example, offers an online form that visitors can use to order products. And Agricore United (www.agricoreunited.com) offers business-to-business transactions via a password-protected domain on its site. Practical use of multimedia Web pioneers are finding ways to leverage audio, video and 3-D with finesse. Some executives are using audio/video software applications, such as Real Networks' Helix Producer ($399, www.realnetworks) and Microsoft Windows Media (free for Windows users, www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia) to broadcast quarterly meetings or new product introductions. Visual Communicator Studio 2 by Serious Magic ($279, www.seriousmagic.com) has set the standard on quick-and-easy Web video. The software can be used to shoot and upload a simple video to the Web in about 10 minutes. Fast downloads Sometimes, less really is more. While too many Web sites seem to feature every technological bell and whistle, savvier Web designs strip out the bloat, which results in quicksilver downloads and visitors who don't click away in frustration. Adobe's Photoshop has image optimizer tools that help reduce a graphic's size to its bare essentials. Some companies even offer text-only versions of their Web sites for visitors who are cruising on extremely low-power modems — including visitors outside the U.S. You'll also want to be sure that you've hooked up with a high-powered site host. “Your Web-hosting company should have at least a T1 connection,” says Peter Kent, author of Internet Marketing and Promotions. “You don't want a Web-hosting company with, for instance, an ISDN connection. That's simply too slow.” Of course, once you're fully engaged in the creative process of Web design and maintenance, you'll most likely come up with a few ideas of your own about what works and what doesn't. The most inspiring qualities of the Web are its never-ending evolution and its never-ending ability to make doing business easier, faster — and much more profitable. |
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back to Top |
|
Key:  Paid Content  Enhanced for the WebContact Us For Advertisers For Search Partners Privacy Policy Subscribe © 2007 Penton Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
|
