Eyes Designing on your Ecommerce Website
Designing an eCommerce site is more than making it pretty. You have certain desired actions you are looking for from your visitors. You have specific things you want to be sure they see and hopefully act on. Now, there is 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 has 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 have not 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 attention. The concept is called front loading. Wherever you can make sure your critical terms appear at the very beginning of headlines, links and other text. It is 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 do not have a lot of time to mess about. It has 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 do not overuse them your page will look like a mess, and it 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 is an improvement.
Do you use lists Have you made sure that they are in line and as close to the left margin as possible Do not 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 are totally missed by even 3 percent of your visitors, you are 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 is a great way to start an argument. Some argue that it attracts the eye, it is different, few sites use it so you stand out. Others insist that you are far better off staying left justified and front loading each paragraph. There is 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, front loading, 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.
Questions and Answers
In today's economic climate of an income online is the way of many. However, it is not easy. Of my journey and experience I can say that if you do not have someone who can guide you to lose a lot of time and money. However, this is what I found on my way to success.
Most of us know about SEO, usually people use to optimize their website for online earning purpose and they usually target Google search engine and major users recommend Google Adsense as their earning benefits but before we start earning online its better to take a look on Policies and Guidelines that are useful for optimizing a website.
Google adsense is an advertising program of Google. Anybody can publish adsense ads in his own website or blog. Even if it is free still he can earn from there. Bangladesh google adsense training course trains for silent online earning in Bangladesh like all other countries of the world.
Here I discuss, how to earn money online without investment. I prefer here www.freeonlineearning.com for details understanding.
Thousands of people try to find ways to make huge money from online businesses working from home. Reasons include: convenience, unemployment, extra money, flexibility of hours and looking after children at home. There are many ways to boost your online cash earning potential like Selection of high paying keywords, Correct use of channel, Ads position, Article writing, Product selling, online survey forms etc.
Affiliate marketing has become so popular because of the many different ways you can make money doing it. Here are five ways to generate online earning as marketing affiliates starting legitimate Internet businesses from home.
An in depth look at the new MMORPG from Blizzard Entertainment known as Diablo III, a long awaited release for Diablo fans.
Most small businesses take advantage of computer technology, and it certainly can make things a lot easier for everyone within the business when you do so properly. Unfortunately, there are also a number of different problems that can occur as a result of the technology that you are using.
Copying ipod to computer is easy. For more information on how read this article.
Online training software has found its place in almost all the offices and organizations. It can be used to train employees over the net
According to leading research carried out by Gartner, the number of PCs distributed throughout the first quarter of 2012 went up by 1.9% which was better than analysts predicted.
Window coverings serve an important role in your home, giving you privacy and also protecting your furniture and décor from the harshness of prolonged, direct sunlight. But the range of choices is so wide, including blinds, shades, shutters and curtains, that some homeowners have a hard time deciding which they prefer, or whether they can mix their window coverings according to the room where they are installed.
Excerpted from the book Your Right to Be Beautiful How to Halt the Train of Aging and Meet the Most Beautiful You by Tonya Zavasta. The book is available at http www.bookstoretoday.com
As we reach the time of year when Christmas items start to appear in the stores, and thoughts of vacations start to wind down with the shortening daylight, it is a good time to think about gifts. Not only the gifts, though, but also the practice of giving.
Have you dreamed of becoming a millionaire? Then this article is for you. We live in a world of opportunity, and yet most Americans are buried in credit card and other debt. We are surrounded by people who are getting rich, but most of us are in limbo where are financial affairs are concerned.
Discuss this Article
