Stu Macik_Broken Sky Studio Web Design and Development, Denver, Colorado
When I’m considering “content” in relation to a potential customer’s attention span on a site, I like to think of the situation using a “billboard” analogy. Your potential customer is a driver making their way down the highway (in this case the information superhighway) and your site is the billboard. When they see your “billboard” it’s only going to be a few seconds before they pass it and so the way your message is presented is critical to making them slow down and stop to take a more in-depth look.
When you think about it this way you begin to understand the fact that you only have a few seconds to get the “driver’s” attention before they’ve moved past your “billboard” and on down the road to your competitor.
The question then becomes how do we grab their attention and make them slow down and stop at your site so you can interest them in your goods or services. Well here are a few ideas that I take to heart with every site that I work on that may help you as well. Remember that we are talking about business websites here, not artists sites or other non-business sites, we’re talking about branding and growing your company.
First off, have a professional looking logo that invites attention. Not only is this important as an overall branding practice but I feel that it can be something that very quickly says “hey, this site feels professional, maybe I need to check it out”. It’s been shown that most site visitor’s attention goes to the top-left of the page initially so that’s always a good place for your logo although I have used a top-centered approach as well with good results.
Second, have a concise statement telling what you’re all about offset in some way from the other text/content on the site. Remember you only have a few seconds so don’t make it too long. Make sure it stands out by either using a larger font size, a different color or by having plenty of “white space” around it but make sure that its the first thing the potential customer notices and reads after seeing your logo.
Also, make sure that the site is clean and uncluttered with plenty of white space and a general feel of having some sense of order to it. This is very inviting and professional to customers but is also one of the hardest things to accomplish in design because the natural instinct is to try to cram as much content as possible into the available space. Resist it though and you can get that internet “driver” to park and stay for awhile…and that’s half the battle!
-Stu
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