EVERYTHING!! MY WHOLE SITE IS OF UPMOST IMPORTANCE!!!! Sorry, sometimes I have to yell to get your attention. Of course, wouldn’t it be great if your website did that… all the time?!?!?! Sure, if you like drill sergeants and would buy what they have to sell. If that, however, does not sound like a grand old time, perhaps you should keep that in mind when you plan your website.
Since websites do not (correction… should NEVER) include audio that the user doesn’t start themselves, we have to look at the visual equivalent to yelling and how to use it properly. If you have one person in a room speaking loud enough for you to hear, you listen to them and understand what they have to say. If you have 8 people talking at the same time, it doesn’t matter how loudly they are talking, you don’t hear what they have to say. In fact, it makes you want to leave the room.
There are many versions of yelling on the web, so it can be easy to make mistakes that drive people away from your site. Think of elements of your website as voices that must be used properly to be effective. Make sure that the elements draw the attention of your visitor in to your message. If they are not used properly, they will draw the attention out to the visual elements and structure of the site. You don’t have a website in order to show off a design, you have a website to send your message to people you are trying to reach. If your audience sees your design, and not your message (unless your message IS design), your site is a failure.
Colors are voices. People enjoy seeing colors, especially colors that give the feeling of being comfortable with being at your site and match the content. Color can be overused and you end up over-stimulating the eyes of your visitors with something that is not even related to your message. Obnoxious Bright colors can be used effectively, if they are used as accents or for that call to action that you really want to drive your visitors to. As a general rule, try to incorporate no more than two colors in the overall design of your site or you run the danger of losing your message before the visitor even gets to your content.
Headlines are voices. If everything is important, then nothing is important. Your headlines should call attention to important points of your overall message. If there are too many, it tells your audience you don’t really have an idea what your core message is.
Content is a voice. Content is an important part of your message. Content, however, should support your message, not distract from it. Your audience will get more out of your site by presenting content in a reasonable, organized fashion. That usually means that extensive content will go on a different page other than the homepage. Make it easy to navigate to, but make sure the visitor sees it only after they’ve decided they want to commit to that level of research.
Whitespace is a megaphone for your voices. Whitespace is an area without defined content. It doesn’t have to be white to be whitespace. It can be any color or gradient or even non-distracting graphics. It’s just area around the elements of your site that does not have content. Whitespace is necessary to be able to let the voices of your site speak clearly, one at a time, to your audience. Just because there is space on your monitor without text or images, it doesn’t mean you need to fill it with more fluff. That only takes away from the core message you want to send.
Find your core message. Your website should explain that clearly and every element of your website design should not just reflect and support that message, but also clearly convey it to your audience. That is what will make your website a success.
