After a couple of negative posts, I feel it’s time to accentuate the positive. So: back to the absolute fundamentals of Web design.
I’ve already asserted—as dogmatically as I can—two unbreakable rules:
- Be 100% clear about what your site is going to offer visitors.
- Make it super-easy for your visitors to get what they want. (This comes with a small but important rider: never use fixed size fonts.)
If you stick to these rules, and you do actually have something to offer visitors, your site will get visited. But: will your visitors also tell their friends? Will they come back?
To be sure of that, you have to give them something extra, something unexpected. So: give clear directions to your creative unconscious. Spell out what the site is going to offer, and ask for something which will make it fun, or magic, or even beautiful. At the least a bit of sparkle, at the most something breathtaking. Then do whatever you usually do to help your creative part work: get out your sketchpad, play with ideas, get on with something else for a few days, go for long walks… Whatever.
Of course, if all your creative part comes up with is a set of distracting Flash animations, you need to take it on a journey round the Web. Begin compiling your own list of model sites and sites that suck. Teach your creative part the difference. It will enjoy learning—and if it still comes up with an animation, the animation will be professional and appropriate. It will know you’re not trying to show off, but to enhance the visitor’s experience.
To sum up. Unbreakable rule 3. Surprise your visitors.
