WebProNews

It's late at night, you're surfing the web, and you are on a site that promises to provide you with the answer you need. After a few moments you grow frustrated as you click on link, after link, with no end in site. Sound familiar?

It should. As the web has grown over the past five years a curious thing has happened. It seems that everyone believes they are a web-professional when it comes to web development. Criticizing a web site is out of the question. Some look at it as a masterpiece, a work of art, a way to personally express themselves or their business. Those that view their site this way are missing the opportunity of a lifetime.

The Main Problem
Two years ago I spoke at a Grade 12 computer class. They had all been tasked with the assignment to build a small business web site. I was brought in to discuss what kind of web sites succeed in business and what do not. At the time I was the Web Coordinator for one of the largest financial companies in Canada. I asked the class what they felt was the number one thing a web site needed to succeed - their answer was not surprising. They all assumed it was good web design. They were all wrong. I then asked them what is the number reason that people go to sites. This time they got it right. The answer? To find out something, to read, to find out something they do not know.

So, it stands to reason that if the number one reason to go to a web site is to gain information, then the number one requirement for a successful web site is knowledge management - not web design. As we continued through our session the students began to see that all the time they spent on images and design was a waste. Especially when they realized that the "look" of their site might actually be hindering the very thing they set out to do.

Evaluate Your Site
By asking just one key question the students were able to provide an evaluation of their own sites. If you have a business web site, you may want to consider using this quick evaluation. Get your stopwatch and have a friend or family member see how quickly they can find the following in your site:

a. Contact Information

b. Purpose of the Site (what it is selling, providing)

c. Product Information

Consider the following; you only have 8 seconds before a reader of your site becomes frustrated and leaves (this includes how long your pages take to load). If they are looking for information and cannot find it within that timeframe - then you have just lost a potential client.

Making the Change
You've completed the evaluation and you now realize that trying to find information on your site is the equivalent of trying to find a needle in a haystack. You are probably wondering what to do next? There are great many resources available on the web but here are some tips to begin with.

1. Organize Your Information
Knowledge management is not something that comes easily for everyone. If you are just learning how to organize your web content you may want to start by reading up on what has been shown to really work. Here are some quick suggestions to do when writing your content that will help increase your navigation:

Focus on Your Content

MORE INFO: http://psychology.wichita.edu/optimalweb/

a study by Morkes and Nielsen (1997)found that their experimental website scored higher in usability when text was:

o written concisely (58%)

o easily scannable (47%)

o written in an objective instead of a promotional style (27%)

Consider Placement

MORE INFO: http://psychology.wichita.edu/optimalweb/

Users have grown accustomed to looking in certain areas on a screen to find specific terms (Bernard 2001) Specifically:

o Internal web links were expected to be located on the upper left side of the browser window.

o External web links were expected to be located on the right side or lower left side of the browser window.

o The "back to home" link was expected to be located at the top-left corner and the bottom-center of the browser window.

o The internal search engine was expected to be located at the top-center of the screen, and

o Advertisement banners were expected to be located at the top of the browser window.

Navigational Structure

MORE INFO: http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/mysterymeatnavigation.html

Ensuring that the structure of your site is consistent and easy to navigate will be one of your biggest challenges. While using images with hover-overs and flash may look "fresh and edgy" it is a nightmare for clients trying to navigate your site. Here are some quick tips that I have found successfully work when creating a web site:

o Keep the main path as the focus. Once you have decided on your main menu ensure that it stays that way on every page. If you switch pages new menus should not appear in place of where the main one is. It is perfectly acceptable to add on other menus that provide further navigation into content. The user should always have one main path to navigate that never changes.

o Keep content simple. Some users may lose there way simply by the amount of content on a page. View your pages, if they look overwhelming they probably are. Ensure they can easily go back to where they started. Strong navigation menus and the use of breadcumbs are good places to start.

o Keep the clicks low. As a general rule site visitors should be able to find the information they are looking for in 4-6 clicks, the less the better. If the user cannot easily find the content they are looking for they will leave.

2. All Design is Not Evil

While it may seem that this article is anti-design, I assure you this is not the case. Good web design, will contribute to your overall professional appearance. A couple of key thing's to consider when have your
site created is:

Use of Images

MORE INFO:http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703a.html

The use of images can provide your site with a clean, professional look. The most important thing to remember when selecting your images is to ensure that they do not increase your page download time. According to Jakob Nielsen speed should be your overriding design criterion as user's have little patience when it comes to waiting for pages.

Colour Schemes

MORE INFO: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/5053/41178

Ensure that you choose suitable background images and colours that allows the user to clearly read text without difficulty. Some colour blind people cannot easily see some contrasting colours when placed by each other (ie Green on Red). Your safest bet is to select a white background with dark text as it is easiest on the eyes. Remember: What may look incredible in print, may not translate well onto the web. It is a different medium. Essentially users are looking at light, which makes it more difficult to read.

3. The Test of a Good Web Site

Now that you have reorganized your content and feel that it is easier to find - test it. Send the link to friends and colleagues and ask them to find a particular piece of content that you have posted. When they look for the content ask them to note the following:

Time. How long did it take for you to find the content

Clicks. How many clicks did it take before you found the content.

Overall opinion. Do they find the new layout easier to navigate?

Karolyn Hart works full time as a Project Manager for a large healthcare software provider and operates her own side business specializing in the Internet. Previous to this she spent nine years in the Financial Services industry as a marketing and technical consultant.