Visitor-Centric Design Promotes Repeat Visits

Put Your Visitors First

It takes some work (sometimes hard work) to get people to visit your website. So why chase them away with a site that isn’t usable? If you invest the time to make your site(s) visitor-centric (Warning! Additional work required), people will stay on your site longer and are much more likely to come back. To get a better idea of what I mean, let’s look at Merriam-Webster’s definitions of usable:

Now, I would say that most websites are capable of being used to some degree. So let’s not dwell on the first definition. Being the proud designers and developers that we are, we want to go the extra mile and make websites convenient for our visitors to use.

Why, you ask? As we all know, the internet is a busy place filled with many things to do, see, read and learn. When a person sits down to surf the web, she may have many goals to accomplish in a limited amount of time. This leads to a decrease in her attention span. If she can’t find what she is looking for on your site, she will quickly move on to a site that is easier for her to use.

A Real-World Example

So if Bobby wants to buy a new Celtics NBA Finals championship jacket, how can we make it convenient for him to accomplish this goal on our sporting attire website?

1. For starters, we would probably want to have a clearly displayed search box on our page so that he can search for it. Since he wants something specific, he will look for the search box first. Please note that not all websites require the ability to search. However, on sites that sell multiple products, it’s a must have feature!
2. Secondly, we need to have a logical navigation menu in case he wants to find the jacket that way. Most of the time, the navigation will be placed along the top or left side of the page. That doesn’t mean the navigation menu has to be in one of those places, but you better have a good reason for putting it somewhere else. No mystery meat!
3. When he finds the product page, it would be nice to have multiple pictures of the jacket and an accurate description. Right next to the price should a big, fat BUY IT NOW button. Shipping time and costs are common concerns, so it would be beneficial for Bobby to see that info on this page. Additionally, links to the product pages of similar jackets could be displayed in the sidebar of the product page in case he decides to choose a different style.
4. Lastly, the checkout process should be completed in as few steps as possible. It would truly be a shame for Bobby to make it this far only to abandon his shopping cart simply because it takes 12 steps to check out when it could’ve taken three. After checkout, Bobby should see a printable order confirmation page.

Congratulations! You just made a sale because you took the time to make it easy for that to happen. Go ahead and send out an automated email saying “Thank you for your business. Enjoy 10% off your next purchase with promo code CONVENIENT.” As long as your shipping is reliable, Bobby will probably check out your store first the next time he needs a jersey or baseball cap.

Bobby’s fictitious jacket purchase is just one example of how to improve a site by making it more visitor-centric. If your site isn’t getting the attention you think it deserves, try putting yourself in the shoes of your visitors. I’m sure there are plenty of things you can do to make your goals more convenient for your visitors to accomplish. Or, you can hire me to improve your website for you.