Web design las vegasWhenever a visitor arrives on a website, the site has a very short time to convince that person to stay. If it looks like a muddle, or it's not clear what the website is about, then most likely the visitor will bounce off to somewhere more 'useful' for their purposes.
Web design las vegas - Navigation
The navigation should be clear and consistent. Bear in mind the 3 click rule indicating that any page on a website should not be more than 3 clicks from the home page. Clarity is key. If the visitor gets lost, the consumer experience quotient is diminished. There should be a clear visual hierarchy. This means that it should be clear to the visitor which categories or topics fall into which parent pages. Sometimes this is difficult when it's not obvious where to put a topic. But try to make it as intuitive as possible. And always show them the way out, that is, also have the home page clickable with a single click from wherever the user is.
The approach is the opposite to the design of casinos in Las Vegas. Here, the way out is signposted as per regulations, but it is not generally obvious. The concept is to keep people wandering around and gambling by making it difficult to leave. This works best for casinos but will not work for your website.
The idea of 'visual affordance' is relevant here. This is actually the idea that the visual style of an object (whatever that might be) should give some indication of using it. An example of this is the shopping cart icon on an ecommerce site. The shopping cart image indicates to users this is where you go to fulfil the purchase.
Web design las vegas - Utility and usability
Do not get confused between the notions of 'utility' and 'usability'. Utility refers back to the ability to do plenty of useful things on a site. Usability refers to how easy it's for users to really do those things. Usability shows how likely the consumer is to actually carry out the desired tasks. Visitors is less likely to create contact if that contact is hard to find. A visitor is less likely to buy if they are interrupted across the purchase path. For ecommerce in particular, once a visitor is involved in the buying process, that process ought to be pared back to the minimum. Requests for added details will only lead to user frustration. Plus they won't return with no compelling reason.
web design las vegas - Ecommerce
I'll provide you with an example of a frustrating user experience. I was looking for an iPhone online, for prices and specs and packages. What I got was a telco asking me for my customer no. which obviously is buried using the bills that I try not to look at. So they put up an obstacle straight away. Presumably this was to store data about my interests for marketing purposes, but it's the wrong approach.
Web design las vegas - Mobile Interaction
How good does your website look on a mobile browser? If the answer is I don't know because I can't see it properly, then it's time to take action. A growing amount of the visitors to your site are probably visiting you from mobile devices which is set to increase further. Even without the a mobile-enabled site or perhaps a site specifically designed for that mobile platform, your visitor is not likely to have a good experience. Therefore, he's less likely to return and less likely to perform the desired action on your site. If you have a site built with WordPress then you could look at installing a plugin for example WP Touch to render your site in a suitable way.
