I’ve often used the job interview as a metaphor for great website design. The decision to trust someone with my email address, or – my credit card information – depends largely on these ten factors. If you’re gonna show up in sweat pants for a job interview, it’s a safe bet that you’re not going to convince anyone you can be trusted with daily decisions. So without hesitation – let’s get right to it.
- Site Load Time
Let’s face it, we are very impatient and slow loading sites are the number one reason why visitor reach for the ‘eject button’. The faster your site loads, the more confidence visitors will have when bumping around your site. - Site Branding
Having a professional and consistent brand not only communicates to your visitors that you can be trusted, but it communicates your promise. Your brand should speak to your audience on a really primitive level, practically subliminal. - Site Imagery
Using images that identify with your audience is a huge plus. It demonstrates that you know whom your customer is – and allows for the discussion about how you can help your customer. - Typography
A little disclaimer, I’m a huge fan of typography – it does affect my purchasing decisions but I was shocked to see typography place above our number five – navigation. Much like print – great typography means users can quickly scan content that appeals to their needs, saving visitors time. - Site Navigation
Nothing seems to be more frustrating than not having the ability to find what we’re looking for – and therefore having a fairly simple navigation has a huge impact on first impressions. Perhaps the reason that navigation wasn’t higher on the list is because of the use of ‘search’ or footer links or site maps.