Web Design Tips continued. Load time is very important ...

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• Topic 3
• Creating a User Friendly Web-Site

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Objectives of Topic 3

• Determining the components of a user friendly
  web-site
• Deciding goals for the web-site
• Beginning web-site design
• Modifying and updating web-sites

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Six Web Design Tips
Stickysauce.comd

• Navigation
• Layout
• Load time
• Browser/screen resolution compatibility
• Color
• Site design

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Web Design Tips

• Navigation
• Concise, quick and easy for your users
• Structure should be uniform throughout your
  web-site
• Keep users informed about which part of your site
  they are in and how to move on to other parts of
  your site
• Layout
• Consistency
• Never cram your page with too much information
• Keep scrolling to a minimum

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Web Design Tips continued

• Load time is very important
• The longer it takes for your site to load the
  quicker the visitor will leave
• Design with a user of a 56k modem in mind
• Recommended file size 40-60K
• Save all photos as .jpg and all normal graphics
  as .gif
• Browser / screen resolution compatibility
• Make your site friendly to all browsers and all
  screen resolutions

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Web Design Tips continued

• Color
• Business sites use light colors such as Blue,
  Grey, White etc.
• 3-5 colors per page
• Complementary colors
• Site design
• Building vs. designing a web-site

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Web Site Design No-No's! continued

• Don't let selling words and phrases go unnoticed
• Highlight important words and phrases with color,
  bolding, italics, underlining, etc.
• Don't forget to use words that create emotion
• Emotion sells!

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Making Your Site More Useful

• Teach something
• Demand for concise, well written how-to
  information
• If you have a business Web site, you have an area
  of expertise
• Simplify a complex task
• Examples buying a home, changing careers, or
  starting a business
• Provide checklists, on-line wizards, or other
  tools to organize and automate complex tasks

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Making Your Site More Useful

• Offer extraordinary value
• People calculate value by comparing what they get
  to how much it costs
• Create value by showing how benefits exceed the
  cost
• Difficult to compete on price, increase value by
  packaging with "free" add-ons or companion
  products
• Offer unparalleled convenience
• Make it a snap to locate and use your Web site
• Make it easy to remember
• Design it for easy access

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Making Your Site More Useful

• Assist with decision-making
• Provide organized, easy way to make purchase
  decision
• For example checklist or worksheet
• Provide superior quality
• Provide that extra feature, service, or customer
  care
• Invite participation
• Provide forums, share advice, publish articles,
  etc.
• Sites that provide valuable communities for
  customers gain greater customer loyalty

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Making Your Site More Useful

• Give something for nothing
• People respond to getting good stuff free
• Differentiate
• Set your site apart by offering a different mix,
  more content, better quality
• Diversify
• Offer content, tools, and services for different
  levels of expertise or areas of interest

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Creating A Successful Homepage

• How do I organize my web site?
• Write an outline
• Include about us, mission statement, products
  services, testimonials, ordering info, contact
  info, links, shopping cart, etc
• Always stress the benefits of your product or
  service!

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Creating A Successful Homepage

• Ask for your visitors e-mail addresses?
• Ask them to sign your guest book
• Ask them to subscribe to your newsletter
• Request information from your auto-responder

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Creating A Successful Homepage

• Remember content is king!
• If the banner does not generate income, then you
  do not need it
• A clean, crisp logo and a few small images can be
  used to emphasize a particular point of interest
• An eye-catching headline is important!
• Using words like new and "discover will get
  attention

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Design Tips To Live By continued

• Tip 5 Open external links in a new window
• Be sure that any links that don't take the
  visitor directly to a page on your site should be
  opened in a new window by default
• This benefits both yourself and the customer
• Users still have your site open and are given
  free reign to browse the external link

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Keys to Profiting in E-business

• Key 1 E-commerce
• Visitors should be able to purchases with the
  click of a button
• Cater to the impulse buyer
• Provide a simple yet effective shopping cart
  system
• To allow customers to ask questions by e-mail,
  provide on-line customer service forms or a
  customer service e-mail address

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Keys to Profiting in E-business

• Key 1 continued E-commerce
• Check mailbox frequently in order to respond to
  customer queries promptly
• As an alternative to using e-mail, list your
  phone numbers on your web-site
• Include hours of operation

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Keys to Profiting in E-business

• Key 2 Form Affiliations
• Form solid partnerships and affiliations
• Develop joint venture partnerships with those web
  sites that fit with the "theme" of your
  e-business

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Keys to Profiting in E-business

• Key 3 Technological Knowledge
• You don't have to be a programmer, but you must
  have access to those people who are
• Key 4 Promote
• Advertise
• Key 5 Patience
• Think long-term
• Create step-by-step and you'll be greatly
  rewarded
• Key 6 Investment
• Invest both time and money

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On-line Order Considerations

• Online payment
• Security
• Does online purchase fit your product?

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Site Maintenance

• Upkeep of your own site
• Purchase software
• Learn HTML
• Outside contract
• Consistent availability
• High cost

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Thank You!!

• Are there any questions?