Website Fundamentals: Keeping it Short and Sweet

We’re in our last article of a 3-part series on building websites according to user-centered design.  The three principles this series of articles is focusing on are:

1. Provide consistent navigation and layout
2. Focus on the users’ needs
3. Keep it short and sweet

Last month, we wrote about focusing on the users’ needs.  This month, we’ll be talking about our final principle: keeping it short and sweet.

It’s a well-known fact: people oftentimes don’t truly read web pages; they skim them.  In fact, it has been documented that most web pages are viewed for less than 10 seconds.  If people want to do in-depth reading, they’ll pick up a book, not go to a website.

What does this mean for you?  It means you need to design your web pages less like an essay, and more like a billboard. Here are some suggestions:

• Replace lengthy paragraphs with bullet points, block quotes, and sub-headlines.
• Break up your text content with images and icons.
• Highlight important words or sentences with bold text.

I would say that for website homepages, a good rule of thumb would be to avoid having more than two continuous paragraphs in a row.  Body pages, or the “inside pages,” can have more text than the homepage, because they oftentimes need to present more in-depth information — but you still shouldn’t be turning your website body pages into the next edition of War and Peace!

Additionally, intersperse your text with various calls to action: links or buttons with labels like “Learn More,” “Contact Us,” or “Sign Up Now.”  This helps guide your website users in their browsing process — ie. “What do I do with the information that I just read?”  (This is also a good sales practice as well.)

A lot of this ties in with the usability principle we wrote about last month: focusing on the user’s needs.  Like I said last month, people aren’t visiting your website to read a lengthy tome on the ins and outs of your company history.  They’re visiting because they want to know how you can help them. You need to succinctly show them what you do and why it should matter to them.

Here are some examples of websites that do a great job of “keeping it short and sweet.”

• www.FreshBooks.com
• www.BaseCampHQ.com
• www.Mozy.com
• and of course… www.Apple.com

We’ll be back next month with a new article on planning, building and maintaining your website.  In the meantime, if you have any questions about website design and development, feel free to contact us.

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