Remember Your Audience

As you are building components of your web site, always keep your audience in mind.  Remember, they came to the site for a purpose and it is your job to fulfill that purpose.  If they came for information, you need to provide that information in a clear, concise, easy to follow manner.  If they came for a product, you need to provide information about the product and an easy way to purchase it.  When you are thinking about a new component, make sure it fits within the overall theme and purpose of the site.  Make sure that it enhances the content and provides value to your and your visitor.

If you or your web developer wants to add some new thing to the site, a flash movie on the home page for example.  Ask yourself “why”, ask your designer “why” (yes even if it is me).  Why does this flash movie belong on my home page.  What value does it bring to my visitor?  What value does it bring to me?  Does it enhance the purpose my visitors have come to find or is it simply there because it is “cool” and is it really clutter? Make sure you can answer these questions before you decide to add some fancy new thing to the site.

Think about those sites you go to that have so much going on on the page that you can’t figure out what is really going on and what the purpose of the site is.  There are many examples of this sort of site, you’ve been on them.  The animation on the right margin is going like crazy, and the flash banner movie is going along the top constantly, and there is the blinking ad on the left that is screaming at you, and the content you really came for is buried “below the fold” on screen 7 or 8 of the page.  Man, it’s hard to believe that anyone would buy anything from that site.  You don’t want your visitors feeling like that when they come to your site.