Design

Sarah Worsham / Jul 1, 2009

What Your Website Visitors Initially See – The 5 Second Glimpse Test

The first time visitors come to a site they usually spend less than 5 seconds figuring out if they’re in the right place. Right place being, of course, where they can get whatever information it is that they’re looking for. During those 5 seconds you need to communicate what your site is about, what information you have to offer, and how they’ll be able to navigate the site, so it touches on design, usability, content and marketing…

What do visitors see during those 5 seconds? Try The 5 Second Glimpse Test:

Sarah Worsham / Jun 26, 2009

The Value of a Website's Tagline

uniqueDelphine There’s nothing new about taglines. They’ve been used in different types of media for quite some time as a way to summarize the entire company/product/organization in a short bit of space/time. On a website, the tagline is usually a short bit of a text near the logo to describe what that site is. They’re the first glimpse into exactly what it is you do. If the tagline isn’t clear, visitors will have to spend more time figuring that out (which they may not). Often visitors enter your site somewhere other than the homepage and the tagline may be the only real description on the page where they do enter.

A good tagline should:

Be clear & informative
Be short & concise (six to eight words)
Differentiate your business
Offer at least one clear benefit
Be personable and catchy (hopefully a bit clever)
Be unique
Stand on its own

This may seem like a lot of weight on just a short phrase, but good taglines are invaluable for differentiating yourself and quickly describing what it is you do. Once you have a good one you’ll be able to use it on all your marketing materials and advertising. If you don’t know how well your tagline works, try showing someone (or telling) your tagline and see what it is they think you do.

How do you use your tagline?

(photo by Delphine – Very very busy :/ @ Flickr CC)

Technorati tags: tagline, design, marketing, uability, business

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Sarah Worsham / May 7, 2009

On a Crusade Against Drop-Down Menus

crusadepuroticorico Anyone who worked with me at the publishing company will know that I am completely (almost) against using drop-down menus on websites. Why? Well there are lot’s of reasons…

They’re cool

I hate using anything because it’s cool. If you have a business reason for using something, that’s one thing, but using something because it’s cool, just isn’t. Most things that are used for this reason are annoying and quickly become yesterday’s fad. Besides, you’re running a business, not trying to join a high school clique.

They don’t work well

While this problem has improved, many sites still don’t implement drop down menus very well. They’re hard to use and clicking on just the right link is very difficult.

They don’t show up on mobile devices

This has been improved as well. But even if they do work on mobile devices, they’re even more difficult to use than when you have a mouse.

What about people without a mouse

There are people out there using computers without mice – text readers and other devices for people with disabilities, and other devices. Some drop-down menus will have accessibility for people with keyboards or other devices, but often this is forgotten.

They’re a crutch

In order to properly (if there is such a thing) use drop down menus, information needs to be organized in a way that makes sense. There needs to be some sort of hierarchy. Most sites that use drop down menus don’t have a true information hierarchy, they just use cute titles that only make sense to the designer or marketing guy. And there’s almost always a bunch of pages that don’t fit anywhere and are thrown under a Misc. heading – not very helpful.

It’s hard to find things

People are much faster at scanning a page than mousing over menu items to see what’s in them. While your drop downs may seem like they’re saving time, they really are causing seconds of time for every use – that really adds up.

They’re annoying

I don’t know how many times I’ll go to a site with drop down menus and my mouse will happen to be over one of them. All of a sudden a menu pops up when all I’m trying to do is read an article. Now I have to take the time to move my mouse so I can do what I came to the site to do. Or, I’ll be trying to navigate through a site but I can’t seem to get my mouse in the right place to keep the menu open long enough to click on the text – it can be pretty trying to click on a small word just to go to another page.

They’re a fad

For the most part, large sites have started to go away from drop-down menus (yay!). They’ve found that people can scan through a long list of links much faster than they can hunt through different drop-down menus. Having all the major links on a page means that it’ll be easier for people to find other reasons to stay on your site, instead of leaving or clicking off.

(photo by puroticorico)

Technorati tags: drop-down menu, usability, design, business, marketing strategy, marketing

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