Designing an eCommerce site
by: Daniel Jowssey
Total views: 232
Word Count: 1024
In a recent article I talked about Google AdSense placement
based on eye-tracking research. However, research by The Poynter Institute, Eye
tools and the Estlow Center for Journalism and New Media has a lot to say about
more than where to put an AdSense block.
Designing an eCommerce site is more than making it pretty. You have certain
desired actions you're looking for from your visitors. You have specific things
you want to be sure they see and hopefully act on. Now, there's some research
that can guide your design. Certainly you want your site to look professional,
but you want it to do its job as effectively as possible too.
People are surprisingly alike in some of their basic visual behavior. It's been
argued that our evolution as hunter-gatherers has shaped much of our ingrained
visual patterns. Whether you buy that particular argument or not there are
still important commonalities.
Typical behavior on initially viewing a site is to do a fast scan of the entire
visible screen with short focusing periods around the areas that attract
attention. First pass tends to include headlines, the page logo, photo
captions, subheads, links and menu items. And the big hot spot is the upper
left corner of the screen. I haven't seen any definitive research on whether
these patterns also hold for users with native languages that read any way
except left to right, but I'm assuming most of you are building sites for
left-to-right readers.
The clear message is that your most important real estate is in that upper left
area and that the lower right (particularly if it's below the fold) is the
least likely to receive much attention.
How you use your words in a headline, paragraph or link can make a huge
difference in your success at capturing a visitor's attention. The concept is
called frontloading. Wherever you can make sure your critical terms appear at
the very beginning of headlines, links and other text. It's still got to make
sense, but the first few words are far more likely to be at least scanned then
the middle or end of a headline or link or the inside of a paragraph.
The exact same words can have drastically different capture rates depending on
their order. You want to maximize the probability that the visitor will read a
whole headline or link and then act on it. So put the most significant,
enticing words first - the ones that are the best grabbers and convey the
subject immediately.
You don't have a lot of time to mess about. It's been reported that a typical
surfer may be off your page in well under 14 seconds unless something grabs his
or her attention fast. Remember the upper-left? You want to do an especially
good job with headlines, link and text in that area.
Dropcaps (where the first capitalized letter in a line is in a different, often
unusual, font and extends below the normal text base-line), bolding, font
changes and color changes can also serve as strong eye-attractors. If you try
these techniques you need to be careful that you don't overuse them (your page
will look like a mess), and it's extremely important that you test whether or
not they're actually doing what you want. Annoying as it may be, running tests
is the only way to make sure it's an improvement.
Do you use lists? Have you made sure that they're in-line and as close to the
left margin as possible? Don't ever use an outline format with multiple
indents. People scan down, not across and they tend to scan close to the left
margin. Indent too much and it might as well be invisible.
An interesting testing result that I read somewhere said that somewhere between
10 and 20 percent of site visitors don't even see centered headlines. Sure they
look nice and a lot of sites use them, but if they're totally missed by even 3
percent of your visitors, you're paying a major price to look good. Suggestion?
Put those headlines up against your left margin.
This also applies to links. Put those links up against the left margin, not
inside a paragraph, centered or off to the right. And if you want any clicks on
a link, never put it in that nearly unseen lower right area. Might as well just
leave it off your page.
How about indented paragraphs? Now there's a great way to start an argument.
Some argue that it attracts the eye, it's different, few sites use it so you
stand out. Others insist that you're far better off staying left justified and
frontloading each paragraph. There's only one way to resolve it for yourself,
yeah, run some tests and see what works with your visitors on your site.
The bottom line is that once you get beyond the basics of placement,
frontloading, and left-justified links and headlines, you need to test if you
want to fully maximize the effectiveness of your website design. I wish there
were a simpler answer too, but in the end only testing will tell you what works
best for your site
In a recent article I talked
about Google AdSense placement based on eye-tracking research. However,
research by The Poynter Institute, Eye tools and the Estlow Center for
Journalism and New Media has a lot to say about more than where to put an
AdSense block.
Contact:
Ms. Doanh Nguyen: Sales
Email: sales@blueball.com.vn
Sales Representative
International Marketing Department
Blue Ball Co. Ltd.
Thailand
252/94 Muang Thai - Phatra Complex
Tower 2, 17th floor, Ratchadapisek Rd.
Huay Kwang, Bangkok, Thailand
Tel: +66 2 6932940
Fax: +66 2 6932941
Vietnam
Quang Trung Software City
Ground Floor, Anna Building
District 12, Ho Chi Minh City
Tel: +84 8 4371032
Fax: +84 8 4371033
Article Source: http://www.ArticleStreet.com/profile/daniel-jowssey-5383.html
About the Author
Find
<a href=" http://www.blueballgroup.com/html/outsourcing.html"
>IT programmers</a> and more useful information about software partner
program on<a href="http://www.blueballgroup.com"> Information
technology</a>.
Rating: Not yet rated