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What is a user friendly website and
what makes a web site user friendly ?
The goal of
every good business website on the WWW
is to first attract new visitors and second,
help users become new customers . For any
website to retain website visitors long enough for them to become comfortable,
requires that
a business designer includes design features that make site users
want to stay and
find usable information on your site .
User friendly web sites are
simply
good web sites , that help customers
find useful information .
The most common
user complaint about business websites involves
site navigation. Having
a good site map HELPS solve
many navigation mistakes . A good site map is and aid to good site navigation ,
but it doesn't replace useable site menus
There are many types of menus used on business websites. Probably
the most common is the
Javascript drop-down menu . Although a Javascript menu
can easily handle all the pages on your site, it also creates more problems
for some users than you can imagine. The only menu worse than Javascript, is an
unusable flash menu .
Some users get nervous using layered menus.
Search engines can't follow the links in Javascript and flash menus.
Users must be able
to clearly understand where a link goes , or they probably won't
press it! All those cute little icons can confuse users.
Clear text links create user confidence . We use and recommend
simple HTML menus for every business website.
Search engines can easily follow them ,
your customers already understand and follow them.
Every business website should be written to
inform potential customers about all aspects of the business it
represents. Making all that information user friendly seems to be difficult for
many business web sites. Technical jargon,
confusing terminology and cute slogans
can all create a user experience that makes customers leave.
Good web sites are about good information . If
your
information is technical , provide
detailed definitions and descriptions of any
confusing words used on the site.
User friendly information let's your users know that your site was
written to
answer customer questions , without ever talking down to them .
Animated graphics are definitely
not user friendly .
Those side scrolling banners that march across the screen can be very distracting
and annoying the second time you are forced to read them!
Color contrast between the print and background needs to allow users to comfortably
read all the words.
Color choices are very important . Small font sizes can also
create user difficulties for people with vision impairments.
An accessible website design is simply following the
goals of the world wide web .
Although
information on every website should
be fully accessible to people with disabilities , most
website designers ignore this important component .
For a small business website owner ,
a user friendly website design presents an image of respect for all
their visitors' needs. The 10-20 percent of website
visitors who require accessibility features to access and navigate
your website, will certainly appreciate the exceptional customer service values
you portray
by providing easy navigation access . If you do business with the
U.S. Federal Government, your website also needs
to provide minimum accessibility features . User friendly websites
attract and retain more users
webmaster to
design websites for users ,
not search engines. Designing
a user friendly business information site
will impress every search engine and
improve your ranking results .
To be a fully accessible website requires that everyone,
everywhere can
access your business information . Considering the fact
that there are more than two thousand languages and numerous dialects,
translation services alone, would be cost prohibitive for any small business.
Although
automated translation technology can allow many different languages to communicate
in a common form, it's still not very user friendly .
Designing an accessible website for people with
vision impairments can
also present many variables. Color blindness, limited vision and complete blindness,
each present unique
challenges to an accessible design .
The goal in designing an accessible website , is to provide every visitor
with an opportunity
(
using assistive technologies ) to access your web site's information. Most
accessible technology requires
standards compliant markup to
work effectively.
Always validate your page markup !
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Since
most websites are still not accessible ,
designing your business site with
accessibility features as a priority , will put your web site in a very elite
group. If your business
can provide products or services to
people with special needs , the elderly,
or anyone else who can not easily use a computer mouse, you could develop
a new, loyal customer base by
producing an accessible website .
Your business website needs
to be a user friendly website to
attract lots of visitors and be profitable . Accessibility will
make your website attractive to search engines and human visitors, when your
pages appear at the top of
the search results pages .
A well designed accessible business website will follow
the same procedure used by a good SEO .
Website accessibility is actually
a big part of good search engine optimization . Of all
the misunderstood components of
good web site design ,
accessibility is
the least important to most designers .
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We can design a user friendly website for any small business.
The level of accessibility conformance
(
single A to triple A ) should be decided on the basis of
your
expected customer needs . It should be noted that even single A
accessibility will dramatically
improve the user experience for all your website's visitors.
Some simple considerations can improve user friendliness . They include:
A good web site is user friendly
include some minimum accessibility features into every
site we design. Upgrading your site to full accessibility , is definitely a
cost-effective investment for anyone who would like to provide services to people
with special needs . We can
help you find a market you might not even know exists!
Every search engine advises website owners to write their
website for users and not search engines. Creating a user friendly site
will impress both human users and search engines alike. This is a critical
step in creating
a good business information site .
What is a website , before you make
any important business web design decisions.
How to
find business web site information
This script allows users to simply add this user friendly website to their
favorites list or bookmark this page.
This script changes the background color of text input areas, for higher
contrast and greater website accessibility and usability.
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