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Design Your Website For The Users And Usability

by Darren

That’s always the cry these days, and it’s no wonder. People login to the internet in order to streamline some of the processes in life, and to hopefully find information quickly. If your website is hard to navigate, or people can’t figure out what to do quickly, they might leave quickly and never buy.

I enjoyed this post by Gerry McGovern, who was upset with SAS’s website, because he couldn’t use the website for his purposes, but instead was forced to watch a puff piece about company history. His reaction was unenthusiastic:

I could not care less that it’s your 60thanniversary! You didn’t send me a card when it was our anniversary, so why should I care about you? If you want me to care, offer me 60 percent off, then I will gladly say: Happy anniversary.

What sort of weird and wacky drugs were SAS on when they decided to create this mega marketing muck-brained monstrosity? Did they by any chance allow an advertising agency to advise them?

Frustration begins to set in when he can’t even quickly accomplish his task, and then the key statement to web developers everywhere:

The Web customer is always, always, always in a hurry. The Web is the land of attention deficit syndrome. People are improperly impatient. They just want to book a cheap flight as quickly as possible.

Repeat after me: “We are not the center of the universe. We are not the center of the universe.” It’s a big, bad world out there, full of unkind and cruel customers who care only about themselves.

Indeed. Placing the emphasis directly on the customer may be the only surefire way to make sure your website is really well-designed. If the customers can use it, and do often, then something is definitely right.