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Copyright © 2023 Purpose UX, LLC.
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Powered by Design with Purpose.
As a design professional, I wind up getting asked by friends / neighbors / family about improving their personal or small business websites. For most people, keeping a few principles in mind can make for a drastically better experience. Here they are:
This may sound crazy, but bear with me — You need to flip your mentality from “I need a website” to “I need customers / sales / clients / [insert actual thing that generates revenue here]”. Chances are, getting those customers / sales / clients / [X] will involve a website, but it’s essential to frame it in the correct way.
That’s because as you are designing your site, you should not be thinking “this is the type of thing that goes on a website, so let’s include it”. Instead you need to be thinking “does this content drive customers / sales / clients / [X]?” If the answer is “no”, then don’t include it.
“But it’s my site!” you say. Sure, you should create a site that you like (or can at least tolerate). But it’s essential to create a site that meets your audiences’s needs, not your own.
The main problem I see are sites with long blocks of text talking about the story of the business, reciting the owner’s biography, or just generally focused on the business / business owner. Customers don’t care — they didn’t come to your site to read about you, they came to accomplish something — buy a product, make an appointment, check your menu. Get out of their way and let them do it.
A quick tell is to look through the copy on your home page — is it talking about “me” / “us” or is it talking about “you”? Your home page should be about your customer and their needs. If you must share your company’s story or your bio, that’s what the “About” page is for.
Don’t focus what you want to talk about, focus on what your customers are trying to do.
The most successful interaction is for someone to come to your site, find what they need, then leave. You’re not a social media platform selling ad engagement, so you want people to get what they want in the shortest time possible.
Story time — A local gaming store in our area redesigned their website and solicited feedback from customers on the new design. The one big change I convinced them to make was to move the store hours and contact info into the global header. I was always frustrated by not having that info readily available and from talking to their cashiers, I knew they fielded multiple calls a day from other customers asking for that same information.
After they agreed to update the header, those calls dropped to nearly zero. A decade (and multiple website redesigns) later, that information is still prominently available, because for many of their customers “Where is the store?” “Is it open?” and “How do I reach them?” were the most important questions. Allowing them to get that from the top of the page, on every page, greatly improved the experience.
So remember, people don’t want to browse your site — make it easy for them to find what they need and get on with their day.
Almost 2/3rds of all traffic on the web is from mobile devices. You’re likely creating your site on a desktop, but most of the time, that’s not how your customers are viewing it. Skip the fancy graphics and complicated layouts, that don’t adapt well to smaller screens — if people can’t find what they need easily on mobile, simplify it until they can.
Test on your phone before you publish — if it doesn’t look good there, try again!
Even if it’s a personal site or a small page, take the time to add alt text to your images, use high enough text contrast, use header tags appropriately (H1 is the first big title on the page, then H2, H3, etc.), and use descriptive names for your links (not just “read more” or “click here” all down the page).
You can use our 5 Accessibility Tips for Content Creators, or this basic checklist from Michigan State University.
Applying these principles helps your SEO, improves your design, and is the right thing to do for your audience.
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So there you have it — if you’re making a personal or small business page, or you have a page already and are looking for ways to improve, following these principles will give you the best impact with a relatively small amount of effort. And of course, if you need some expert help, reach out and let us know!
