Cameron Olthuis

Ok, so you’ve spent a lot of effort building a web site and even more effort getting people to come to your site. Now what? Because none of this matters if you can’t actually get these people to use your product.

You only get one chance with a potential user you so you better make it count. If they don’t immediately have interest in your brand and what you’re selling then you’ve lost your chance. It’s like fishing, once the fish nibbles on your bait you have to set the hook before you catch it. If you wait to long the fish will move on.

In a recent post, Most Home Pages Really Do Suck, I mentioned that the first thing your homepage must tell me is; “who you are, what your site does, and how I use it.” This is like the nibble, and the set is actually keeping them around after you’ve told them what you’re about.

So once you get a potential user to “nibble on your bait” how do you set the hook? You need to effectively sell the potential user on your service, because if you don’t your competition will. You always need to be one step ahead of your competition, don’t play catch up.

Here’s 5 6 things that will help you keep visitors coming back again and again.

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The Color Wizard is one of my favorite tools for web design. I’ve been using this nifty little guy for years and it’s always there for me whenever I have color block (think writers block). It’s super easy to use and always spits out a color that I can end up using.

The Colour Wizard lets you type in the value of your colour and get an automatic return of that colour’s complementary colour, split complementary colours, analogous colours, chromatic variations, shade and tint variantion and saturation variation.

If you’re into web or graphic design you need to give The Color Wizard a try.

They also have another tool on the site called The Color Wheel. The Color Wheel generates random colors if you need some color ideas.

Evan Williams has a great writeup called “Ten Rules for Web Startups” on his blog.

Rule #5 is the one that stands out most to me.

#5: Be User-Centric
User experience is everything. It always has been, but it’s still undervalued and under-invested in. If you don’t know user-centered design, study it. Hire people who know it. Obsess over it. Live and breathe it. Get your whole company on board. Better to iterate a hundred times to get the right feature right than to add a hundred more. The point of Ajax is that it can make a site more responsive, not that it’s sexy. Tags can make things easier to find and classify, but maybe not in your application. The point of an API is so developers can add value for users, not to impress the geeks. Don’t get sidetracked by technologies or the blog-worthiness of your next feature. Always focus on the user and all will be well.

I see this abused all to often, especially with search engine optimization. For some reason a lot of the so called SEO experts have never figured this one out, they tend to put the search engines before the user.

Remember, even when it comes to SEO your users must come first. Never, ever do anything that isn’t in the best interest of your users. You can worry about the search engines later, they’ll always follow.

If you have FireFox take a look at MSN’s BETA Home Page. Did they design this using FrontPage or something? I find it hard to believe that MSN can’t get this page the render properly with other browsers, which leads me to think this is on purpose. But why?

I forgot to mention in my entry (Most Home Pages Really Do Suck) that it’s a must your home page properly renders in all major browsers.

Thanks to Guillaumeb for the tip. He’s also put up a screen shot if you’re still using Internet Explorer.

‘Suck’ is a probably a little harsh. Most home pages don’t accomplish their purpose, and yes, some do ’suck’!

I was reading Seth Godin’s Blog today and came across his entry No good home pages?. While I’m sure Seth was just trying to make a point he says “there are no good home pages except for Google.” Then again who knows, maybe Seth really does think that. He has a point though, most home pages are no good. They’re overwhelming and confusing. Hell, I’ve come across web sites, and spent 10 minutes on the home page alone and still couldn’t tell you what they do. Maybe I’m just not as smart as I think.

If I come to your website and don’t know what you’re about within 30 seconds I’ll go somewhere else, and 30 seconds is being generous. The first thing a home page should tell me is; who you are, what your site does, and how I use it. It’s amazing, even some of the biggest brands miss the point. To me it’s just common sense. Do those involved in creating the User Interface just automatically asume everyone knows what they do? Do they even have a clue what they’re doing?

To me a good home page is simple. It’s easy to use and tells me exactly what it does before it tells me anything else. It’s pleasing to the eye and the navigation makes sense. Remember that if you want my business!