If you’re getting a lot of traffic to your website, you probably feel like you’ve won the internet battle. In a way you have – getting to the point of having a healthy traffic tally is a real triumph. But what about after that first step? There is a long and winding road between a [...]
In a nutshell if you design usable web forms you’ll likely see your conversion rates soar. We’ve all had that sinking feeling when faced with a form to fill in, be it on paper or online. They’re usually over long and over-complicated – there’s never the option you want to choose, enough space to actually write your answer or they ask seemingly unrelated questions that you don’t want to answer! You have to be even more careful when you’re asking people to fill in forms online, we’re not only very wary of giving away information but our attention span is very short. It’s easy to go looking for another website that has the same thing on offer for less hassle. Here are 5 ways to get more people filling in your forms:
This is an interesting discussion posted by conversion rate expert Sandra Niehaus on SearchEngineLand.com and an issue I feel strongly about – and as a website owner/manager you’ll find this interesting reading too… Here’s an excerpt from her article to set the scene: “Recently, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in the conversation rate optimization (CRO) community—blaming low conversion rates on web designers. Designers are being caricatured as either “clueless” or unable to restrain their conversion-killing creative impulses. How valid is this view? In my experience, there’s plenty of blame to go around for poor CRO performance. Let’s name some names…”
You may have noticed the tiny magnifying glass icon that is now appearing next to listings in Google – that’s Google Instant Preview. When you hover your mouse over it, this icon allows you to see a preview of the page listed. With this function in the search results, you have less than a second to impress potential visitors. And that’s no exaggeration: less than one second! That’s all the time it takes for internet users to decide whether or not to visit your site – and bear in mind that all they can see is the overall design, not the actual content.
The other day I logged on to a friend’s new site and cringed. Not because the site wasn’t pretty – it was. It was smooth, slick, and obviously professionally designed. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t find my way around it. ‘Usability’ is a bit of a watchword with me. As a web designer, I know that websites have to do a lot more than just look pretty. It’s entirely possible to have a beautiful site that is easy for people to use, but often it seems like designers hit one target and not the other. This is why it’s a good idea to have a review to improve your site’s usability.
How many times have you visited the homepage of a website and thought “ugh!” before clicking the ‘back’ button as quickly as you can? We’ve all done it at some point, whether it’s because it was poorly designed, not well signposted or just plain ugly. Your home page acts as a first point of contact for so many of your customers, it’s important to get it right. A good home page can make the difference between a new customer or a false lead – and a bad home page can do exactly the same thing.
The other week I finally got around to replacing an interior door in my house. Being as I don’t have access to a van large enough to transport a door I thought I’d buy it online and get it delivered. What could possibly go wrong?
“Good designs will have it all – aesthetic pleasure, art, creativity – and at the same time be usable, workable, and enjoyable.” I have a favourite gadget – it’s beautifully designed and yes something that actually does what it supposed to do and makes my life easier! It’s a well designed object that’s easy to interpret and understand – we didn’t need the instruction manual to operate this one.
If you’re a web designer, programmer, publisher, or you pay the bills for a web site you need this book. Don’t Make Me Think is a book I had on my Amazon Wish List for months but somehow never got around to reading. Until that is I went to see a prospective client. I did a quick review of his website with him, talking through what was good and what could be improved. At the end he asked me: “Have you read Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug, a lot of what you’re saying is in line with what’s in the book”. This book costs less than £15 and could literally save you a fortune.
I had the pleasure of being taken out for lunch the other Sunday – nowhere particularly swanky, just to the HaHa Bar in Leeds, but nice all the same. I’ve been there a few times before and what always sticks in my mind is the confusion surrounding the hand washing arrangements. Simple you might think, approach a basin, turn on the tap a bit of soap and hey presto… not so here.
