As much as we all love a beautifully designed website, some designers can get carried away with the look and forget what the site is there for.  I am a strong believer that users (that's you and me) shouldn't have to work too hard to find what we're looking for.  More to the point, most users have a less that 2 minute attention span when looking for something specific - they like to be spoon-fed.  A good designer should know their audience well enough to anticipate what they might be looking for and where they might be looking for it. 

As a rule, western users look for a horizontal menu structure at the top of the page, or a vertical menu on the left.  They also expect to find links such as 'about us', 'site map' and 'contact us' in links at the bottom of the page, if not in the main menu. 

One thing that really rattles me as a web design is not being able to find a telephone number.  As a regular web user, you might think that I would be content with using a web form or email address - but I like to talk to people too!  A certain telecommunications company's telephone number was so elusive that I had to cancel our direct debit just to get them to contact me.  I subsequently moved my account.  Remember that you want your potential customers to contact you, so make sure they can do so easily.

Another frequently overlooked element is the home page. If you don’t have a main menu structure, make sure that your logo links back to your home page – people don’t like to get stuck in your website! Giving them a way back makes them feel more at home.

A great way to improve your navigation is to include breadcrumb links. These are discrete links that tell you where in the site structure you currently are, for example, if you are reading this on my website your breadcrumb reads: Home > Blog. This give people an alternative to the back button and is also great for users who link into the middle of your site from a search engine.

A site map can be a tedious subject if your site isn’t database fed – as you will probably need to create and update it yourself. However, it is well worth it. The site map is often a users last-ditch attempt to find what they are looking for – and so this is your last chance to keep their interest.

We hope this helps, please feel free to contact us if you feel your site could be better!

Anna

Meon Creative | Website Design Hampshire | Marketing Hampshire