April 20, 2006
One of the areas that will determine your online success is the way your web site is designed. There have been times that I have searched sites that were of genuine interest to me, that I quickly gave up on because every time I would click on a link going to a new part of the site, it would change the look and I would have to relearn how to navigate the page. This will kill your online business.
People want consistency across your entire site whether they understand it in those terms or not. They do not want learning curves navigationally; they want to be able to look at something, know what to do and where it will go. Anything that doesn't meet these expectations will result in a lost viewer and potentially, customer.
If you're thinking that your site needs an overhaul in its look, that doesn't mean that it will kill your business if you do it. Just make sure that when you change it that everything is changed completely. Don't get tempted to keep something the way it was, and then include a whole new look on another part of your site that makes your visitor have to learn how to navigate it.
That's a great secret to change in any business whether it is online or not: Even change has to have consistency built into it, or it will be more frustrating for your customers' than helpful. This goes for everything that you do in this area.
One other thing about change to consider is this: Be carefult that the changes to your design will enhance your customers' experience. If the changes you make end up in changing the perceptions of what you website is and does, it could backfire on you.
One way you could do it would be to create a few pages and looks that you are thinking about making. Offer your customers some type of incentive to give you some feedback on it before you launch the changes. That will give you some idea if it will be a real improvement or you need to go back and rethink your changes.
