In all the excitement of producing a new website, it can be only too easy to forget the end user. One would imagine that it to be obvious that the entire project should be dedicated towards satisfying perceived user requirements.

However, unfortunately, this is simply not always the case. For, in many ways a fledgling website can be something of a technical and creative playground, presenting all sorts of tempting possibilities: a pop-up window here, a rollover effect there, a clever flash animation here, and an over-the-top banner there. In short, instead of concentrating on keeping things simple and making things useable, the website is allowed to become a rather loud showcase for the talents of its creators.

In order to avoid falling in to this trap, here at Click Consult, a respected website development company with a track record of producing successful, effective business websites, we urge our client to put their target users first.

Here are some ways of following this principle during the web design process.

-A convincing case for your website. Before doing anything else make sure you have a convincing case, at the very least in your own mind, for your website in the first place. Identify your target audience, and do some research, informal or formal in to whether your proposed site will fill a gap in the market. This is especially important if you are hoping to build an ecommerce website, i.e., one which will need to make a profit.

-Your vision for the site. Draft a mission statement for the new website, one which incorporates its intended purpose in life, what it hopes to achieve (for its users and its owners) in the long-term, its proposed house style, and what will be unique about it. The unique selling point doesn’t need to be anything major, but you should try to find some distinctive qualities. For instance, if your hair salon is the one salon within a square mile then that makes it the salon unique in that small area. This point is worth highlighting in the mission statement. A clear vision will help the whole website development team work with a singleness of purpose towards shared goals.

-Simple navigation. Users hate getting lost on crowded websites. Either work out for yourself, or ask your web design company to work out for you, the key user journeys ahead of time, and construct the navigation according to these. One point to bear in mind is that users welcome a clear picture of where they are at any one time, as well as of where they can go next.

-Clear, comprehendible, concise text. Keep your web copy in line with your site vision – focussed clearly on the subject matter of any given page. “Smart-casual” is a good prose style to aim for. Sentences and paragraphs should be short without being brusque, clear and authoritative without being dull.

-Finally, make sure that your text size is neither too large nor too small to be easily readable.

These steps (and there are plenty more) should be of assistance to you in focussing on the end user during the exciting days of creating your website.