Digital Technologies
For Marketing (Week 21)
Page Design
The overall page
design of an online website is extremely important for businesses to take into
consideration.
First
impressions are critically important. Therefore, a consistent and effectively
designed layout should be used throughout all aspects of the website. This
helps to ensure the most significant information is placed on the homepage,
promotions are advertised effectively, the company logo is always present,
other important features of the website are easily accessed etc. The page
design could make all the difference when encourage users to explore the
website in more depth, make a purchase from the business etc.
BrandInsightBlog
(2012) explains that “Poor design leads to confusion, and nothing drives people
away faster than confusion. If the immediate, split-second impression is that
you don’t know what the site’s about or what to do next, you’re outta there”.
Page design is
not just about the aesthetic elements, but also the site planning, navigation
and structure, messaging and usability. By improving this, the business can
drive enormous traffic to the website and gain more customers. Overall, a great
page design can together produce great results.
Navigation & Structure
The navigation
& structure of an online website is extremely important to be simple and
consistent.
Navigation is
defined as how people move around the website through tools such as links and
menus. The structure is how these links and menus are placed within the website
and how different pages can relate to others.
The navigation
and structure of websites are essentially where users can access content; it is
the site’s overall “brain” and a fundamental aspect of website design. It must
be easily accessed and appeal to the user. “Content that can’t be found can’t
be read” (oneextrapixel, 2009). If content can’t be found and read, results
will be poor.
Navigating
through one screen at a time can be very disorientating. It’s very easy for
some users to get confused and lost. “A reader who gets lost or confused in
this attention-deficit age is likely to hit the “Back” button”
(oneextrapixel, 2009).
Therefore,
creating a simple and clear structure can help the visitor feel comfortable and
allow them to find the content they want quickly and easily. This is critical
to the overall success of any website. Navigation design and structure should
always be “simple, direct, unadorned, with the overriding objective of helping
the user get to where they want to go”.
Dynamic Design & Personalisation
Next, the
dynamic design & personalisation of an online website is about different
and unique content to target potential customers. It is also essential to
ensure website content is greatly detailed and “promotions are customised with
every page to view the specifics of each individual visitor”
(customerinsightgroup, 2012).
A classic
example of this is ASOS. When you shop online at ASOS you would see “we
recommend X, Y and Z” after you click on a product link. This shows the similar
items available to the first product that was originally searched for.
“Recommendation systems are used to predict items that the user may be
interested in, given some information about their profile”,
(customerinsightgroup, 2012). This can also be known as “collaborative
filtering”.
Another example
of dynamic personalisation is New Look and ASOS users are greeted with a
message specifically for them when they are logged in - e.g. “Hi (Name).
Welcome to your account”. “Personalisation” essentially means aspects that can
easily be customized e.g. information, service product etc. All customers have
their own unique wants/needs/demands but they all have one thing in common;
they do not want to waste time and pay attention to content they are not
interested in. Therefore, personalisation is crucial for all websites. It is
used to assign appropriate content to each customer according to their
intentions.
In conclusion,
the use of dynamic design and personalisation via website design can help give
the brand an idea of what is popular and relevant amongst the target audience
at a given time. Overall, it helps the owner to know its consumers.
Aesthetics
= Graphics +
Colour + Style + Layout + Typography
There are two
aspects to the aesthetics of a website. These are: Form and Function.
- Form: The visual design and layout of the website.
- Function: The interaction, navigation and overall structure and ease of use of the websites.
The
overall visual design of a website is extremely important as this is the first
thing users take notice of when they visit the website and first impressions
count! The visual layout of the website is also important in establishing trust
and to set the tone for future experience. Therefore, when designing a
website’s overall look, according to Chaffey and Smith (2009), designers need
to create a “balance of visual design which is visually appealing, but also
works for accessibility, usability, persuasion and branding”.
Frequently Updated
It is extremely important for businesses to frequently
update their websites. Search engines record how often websites are updated.
The more updated the website content is, the more it will rank its web paged
and the more potential customers will find the website via search engines. This
essentially reaches more people, increases website traffic and sales.
Customers will visit more often if the website is updated
in a regular basis. An essential part of updating the website is to keep
customers informed. “Whether it is news, a sale, an event, a change in policies
or terms and conditions etc.” (tigerfish, 2010).
This is all valuable information that customers want and
can use in the future. The more often a business updates their website, the
more they will connect with customers. It will also help attract potential
customers to the site. “Websites can become stale if there isn’t an interesting
reason to visit again and again” (networksolutions).
Accessibility
& Ease of Use
Accessibility essentially means “ease of use” – How easy is each website
to use for all types of customers? How can it be used for those with visual
impairments or other disabilities?
However, web accessibility is not just about reaching disabled
consumers. Web accessibility can be applicable for people with any
difficulties, requirements and needs (e.g. slow internet connection, temporary
disabilities such as broken arm, understanding difficulties etc.) accessing the
internet. By implementing effective accessibility usage for the website, users
can benefit in order to “perceive, understand, navigate and interact”
with the website easily (w3.org). “According to current figures, disabled users
currently make up around 10% to 20% of the population in most countries”
(sitepoint, 2002). Accessibility for these users must be effectively
implemented throughout the website as the business is looking at reaching a
third of their market.
Web accessibility is about ensuring the website is easily accessible to
all Internet users (disabled and non-disabled) and all types of browsing
technology customers use (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari
etc.) The future of the internet is also rapidly growing so it is essential the
website can be accessible for mobiles, PDAS, tablets etc. (this can be achieved
through downloadable website apps for example).
“Web accessibility incorporates several types of disabilities or
problems that hinder web access. These range from including visual, auditory,
physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological issues” (credoe, 2008).
By guaranteeing an easily accessible website, the business can reap huge
benefits. As customers do not all use the same web browser, it is
important images, flash technology, graphics, JavaScript etc. all work well
with each browser.
Websites have experienced problems with accessibility before where a
visitor may look through the website and decides to buy something or sign up to
a newsletter (for example), but the format is not easily accessible so they
click away and the business loses out on a potential customer. To avoid this
from happening, correct formats and accessibility needs to be put into place.
Website users generally do not spend a lot of time reading through
various web pages as this can become tedious and cause them to exit from the
website. Customers like to find what they are looking for as quickly as
possible, scroll through pages and notice items which stand out. As a result,
it is important for website to include bold headings, links, descriptive text,
graphics etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment