Does this navigation bar make my website look fat? Yes, but we’re talking about website design, not fashion design. You may assume that web designers have free reign to be creative, but those ideas must follow a proven web design workflow.

Being artistic is helpful, but you are initially limited by the strength of your website UI (user interface). You must design your website interface for usability first, before visual aesthetics.

Imagine you are your website visitor… and your website is a movie you are eagerly watching in a high performance IMAX theater. Sitting there, anxiously staring at the screen, you are trading your time for entertainment. Your time is fully invested in expectations for a worthwhile experience.

Now, back to reality, will your website fulfill these visitor expectations?

Your website visitor could be anywhere online right now, but they choose to be here. They want an engaging experience in exchange for their time. They expect action, adventure, and speed; all tied together with a clear and connected storyline. That “connected storyline” is your website user interface.

#1 Action

• What do you want your visitors to do?
• What action do you want them to take?

Take a look at any page on your website: How obvious are your intentions?

Your call to action (CTA) is likely unclear or nonexistent (like 70% of Small Business to Business websites).

All the effort you put into being cutting edge and interactive will fail when no one takes action.

There’s a common psychological tendency to conceal our intentions. This creates a harmful, unauthentic division between your website and your visitor. Overcome this awkward interaction by being obvious and genuine about the action visitors should take.

Lead the way, don’t hide your CTA.

#2 Adventure

• Is your navigation clearly labeled?
• Is your design consistently organized?

Click through a few pages on your website: Does every element have an obvious purpose?

When designing your website user interface, your storyline has a conflict:

• You want visitors to take action• Visitors want an engaging experience

Your visitors expect an exciting journey, not just a one-stop sales destination. You need to offer obvious navigation that thoughtfully guides visitors to relevant content.

Your website usability should be more than just functional; it should be an efficient and friendly tour guide.

“I’m Feeling Lucky turns a simple search engine into an adventure.” Website Usability Best Practices

#3 Speed

• Do you control how your website loads?

Open your website on a mobile device: How smooth does it load?

“Fast loading sites are a terrific plus to your clients, but also more attractive to web-indexing spiders.” –

Web Design Technology

Speed online is so common that it’s expected: fast connections, infinite scrolling, and streaming media.

Professional website designers don’t simply build for speed, they control load order.

Your visitors have fast internet connections to handle your dynamic website elements. They want your page to open fast and immediately display every element neatly in place. As this recent NN/g research report shows: Your website UI can be too fast:

• Your website partially loads elements
• Your website re-loads and re-organizes elements

You often see this on mobile devices, as content (visitors want) shifts around to make room for advertisement boxes (visitors don’t want). So, you either control speed and present your website seamlessly, or risk losing frustrated visitors.

Is your Website UI missing that movie magic?

Work with us and your website UI “storyline” gets the action, adventure and speed your visitors need.

Schedule your free 30 minute consultation with Seattle SEO Consultant. Bring your creative ideas
together with our proven web design plans.