Easy Fixes for Your Website Mistakes, Part 2

Last week in this space, I discussed the first five web design mistakes highlighted in an Oct. 13 Target Marketing-sponsored presentation titled 10 Mistakes Your Website Is Making (And How to Fix Them). Speakers included Amy Schade, a director at the Nielsen Norman Group, and Matt Poepsel, vice president of performance strategies at Gomez, which was also the event's sponsor. I moderated. (To tune in to a replay of the presentation, register here.) This week, I'll discuss the last five mistakes, which were presented by both Amy and Matt. 6. Blocking your users' progress. Don't make people go through extra steps to get the information they need from your site, Schade said. Instead, make your users feel like they're flowing through your site and making progress toward reaching their end goals. 7. Saying way too much or way too little. Before offering any details about a product, offer a synopsis of the product you're selling, Schade said. Users will not scroll through pages and pages of information about a product unless they know exactly what the product is. Also, be specific when categorizing your products. A good way to do both of these things, according to Schade, is to use a concept called layering, where you offer different layers of product information on your site. At the top of a page, for instance, you could show a picture of an item, along with some identifying characteristics. If users are interested, they can scroll down the page and see a highlights tab that summarizes more detailed information about it. Then if they're still interested, they can click through and read more detailed information. This is a nice balance of presenting the right amount of information in a very usable way, Schade said. 8. Not taking a walk in your users shoes. This applies to users web usability and technical perspectives, Poepsel said. Make sure the experiences they have in terms of website availability, performance and load time are excellent. If not, users will be frustrated, your brand will be at risk and you'll incur higher operational costs, among other potential problems. 9. Not checking your work twice. Validate how your website looks, displays and performs not just in the most popular browsers — such as Internet Explorer 7.0 — but in all the possible browsers consumers may use when visiting your site, Poepsel said. 10. Not preparing for success. Make sure your website can perform well in both your lowest traffic times and your highest, Poepsel said. You don't want to have the performance of your website flounder after sending out an email blast about a special promotion. Despite the influx of people going to your website at the same time, it should perform just as well as it normally does.

Web Design

Easy Fixes for Your Website Mistakes, Part 2

Melissa Campanelli

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Melissa Campanelli