Just a Click Away

Content is Key

When designing a site for usability, be sure to write content that is specific to the Web site instead of just reproducing your brochure copy. “Reading the screen is different from reading something on paper,” Halvorson says. “It takes a lot of energy; it hurts your eyes. Also, when you’re on line, your hand is on the mouse. You’re looking for something to click on.” She advises keeping paragraphs to a concise 40 or 50 words, limiting homepage copy to 150 total words, and using subheadings that are clear, not clever. Don’t offer a link to Ralph, Randy, and Rebecca’s staff bios by saying something like “Meet the Three R’s.” Be more specific, such as “Meet our Sales Reps.”

Print publications have something called the “thunk factor,” Halvorson says. A nice, heavy publication with lots of information is considered good. That doesn’t extend to the Internet. “I see high-tech companies who are targeting decision makers like CEOs and CFOs using 1,500- to 2,000-word descriptions and case studies,” she says. “I don’t know any CEO who has time to read that.”

Many companies don’t bring in a copywriter until the end of the Web-site development process, Halvorson says. But a copywriter can play a key role in evaluating and improving the basic structure of a site, particularly a complex one in which many divisions of a company are clamoring for space.

Usable content extends to the wording on menu buttons. “Don’t say ‘Shop’ when you mean ‘Buy now,’” Larson says. “Don’t say ‘Buy now’ when you mean ‘Pick up the phone and call to place your order.’”

Best Practices vs. Innovation

If all of your competitors put the same navigation buttons along the top of the page or down the left-hand side (or both), should you set your company apart by putting them diagonally across the homepage? Probably not, advises Andrew Benson, cofounder of Minneapolis company Straight Line Theory, which specializes in Web site usability. “A convention has emerged to have global navigation tools running along the top and secondary tools in a column on the left,” he says. “You’re leveraging the work others have done when you follow that convention. The learning curve for your user is lower.”