We looked at three typical fallacies in expectations from a web designer. Now let’s turn to three typical expectations from a website that won’t be met.

I need to keep my visitors on the site.

This is very common intention and pretty much impossible, though I’ve seen people go to great lengths to try. The truth is very simple. You cannot control your visitor. Period.

If you haven’t spent time looking at the visitor logs your web server keeps you might not believe this. But after examining thousands of logs over the years, I am confident enough of what you will find to make this a categorical statement. The simple truth is that most of your visitors will spend less than a minute on your site and will not visit many pages.

So don’t worry about including outbound links on your site. If your visitor finds them useful, she may just remember your site as being worth re-visiting. Besides, search engines seem to like you to link to other sites and will reward you with a higher ranking.

Absolutely, don’t use JavaScript to disable your visitors back button. Mess with what they know and you’re much, much more likely to anger them than keep them on your site.

I need a fancy Flash intro page.

When I first saw a well done Flash intro I was enthralled. I still remember it, now, six or seven years later. I don’t remember the name of the company or of the site. Just that should tell you something. Today, when I see a Flash intro, I look immediately for the skip intro link. If I can’t find it fast, I’m out of there. And, I’m in the majority in this.

A web designer may try to talk you into a Flash intro but that’s from selfish reasons. Flash is fun and it’s an extra billable feature. Neither of those reasons do a thing for you or your site.

I understand the fallacy that underlies intro pages. You want your site to stand out. But the problem is that the intro page is built on a misguided idea. It’s an attempt to recreate the cover page on a magazine.

If we look a bit further, though, it’s easy to see why this is a mistake. A magazine cover is intended to make the publication jump out from other competing magazines on the rack or news stand. It is effect saying, “Pick me up!”

However, by the time someone comes to your website, they have already “picked you up.” At this point the intro page is just a barrier between your visitor and the content she came to see. Given the short attention span of the typical web surfer, that’s a bad thing.

My site needs to be gorgeous

Wouldn’t it be loverly. But no, your site needs to be professional and appropriate for your audience. Less than that is a turn off. Your site and by reference, you will appear unprofessinal. More than that only strokes your ego. Unless you are involved in fine visual arts, an artistic site won’t increase your traffic.

You will benefit from excellent photos. You will benefit from competent writing, both of which bolster the content your visitor has come to see. Every survey published says the same thing. People visit business or organization websites for information. Your site design simply needs to do two things: First, make that information easy to find. And, second, match your audience. That’s it. If your site design is more compelling than the site content you’re actually distracting people.

Yes, ugly gets in the way. I’m not advocating ugly. Your site should be attractive and easy to understand. But attractive is several steps short of gorgeous. This is a simple example of the law of diminishing returns. Past a certain point you need to put in a lot of effort and money for not much gain.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, April 16th, 2006 at 12:03 am and is filed under Best Practices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.