Our digital team has extensive experience in all facets of website development. And, over the past decade and a half, we have worked to streamline our process in order to achieve the best possible results.
Here are three tips that we’ve learned over that time that can improve the effectiveness of your website.
1. Help users quickly find their way
In order for any website to be a success – and, therefore, provide a positive User Experience (UX) – it must have a concise and helpful navigation scheme. This will help to orient users, as they are likely to land “in” your site via a search rather than on the homepage.
When done correctly, the main navigation, secondary navigation, breadcrumb trail, etc., will increase information scent and allow the user to inherently understand where they are within your site. These things are accomplished initially during the Information Architecture (IA) phase of your project.
2. IA is the most critical component
In order to create a website that is truly beneficial to your users, the content must be organized in a way that helps them complete their task(s). This is referred to as a User-Centered Design (UCD) approach. It involves defining your business objectives in measurable terms, then comparing them against researched user tasks for your website.
3. Take advantage of your core model
Your two sets of goals, business goals and user tasks, can be mapped onto a simple Venn diagram to expose the overlap of common goals. These common goals form what is referred to as the core model, and it will shed light on what content is likely to be the most important navigation points. This core model also helps to inform your Content Strategy (CS) and keep the users’ needs top-of-mind with the team (including stakeholders) throughout the process.
Now, for the sake of brevity, I have over-simplified this process to emphasize some of the main points. At Current360, our digital team will help guide you through all of the steps necessary to build a website that benefits its users, leaving them with a positive impression of your business.
