SarahMonec
|
| Tue Nov 06, 2007 7:00 am Helping Your Visitors: a State of Mind |
|
|
What does “helping your visitors” mean exactly? It means writing your Business websites, newsletters and emails in such a way as to help each visitor achieve his or her goal. That may sound like a simple task, but it isn’t. Before you can write in a way that helps your visitors, you have to recognize and achieve a number of things.
1. Recognize that websites are hard to navigate
Even the simplest site is a lot harder to figure out than a catalog or magazine. We all know how to “use” a catalog. Start at the front cover and keep turning the pages. Same deal for every catalog you touch. It has always been that way and always will be.
2. Understand what it is your visitors are looking for
We may pay lip service to being “visitor-centric,” but all too often our homepages primarily serve the needs of the organization, or even our own egos. We carve up the real estate of the page to represent the different stakeholders in the company. Or we thrust our own views on design upon the visitor. Internal politics and ego are just two of the things that make it even harder for a first-time visitor to figure out how to find what she’s looking for.
3. Accept that visitors scan your headings and links
You’ve done it yourself. You go to a new site and scan the page. You may read one or two headings and links in their entirety, but often you will skim over others. Here comes excuse number two: “Hey, we have a huge site here. We have to create a large number of sub-heads and links on the homepage.” Well, here’s a really big site that seems to have worked around that one: Microsoft.com. They may be the “dark side” to some designers, but they have a very lean homepage for such a huge organization. If you want to help your visitors, try to reduce the number of headings and links on the homepage, and make those forward links as clear and unambiguous as possible.
4. Be relevant in the words and phrases you use
If you want people to know how to find what they want on your site, be sure the language you use is relevant to their needs. At its simplest, this means avoiding corporate-speak and industry jargon. It means taking the trouble to find out which words and terms your visitors use when thinking about your products and services. Don’t use your company’s “hot terms.” Write in a way that is relevant to your visitors. |
|
