Five problems with your Website, and how to fix them

Problem #2: Buttons look like buttons, links look like links
Sounds simple enough. If you want a user to click on a graphic, then you make that graphic look like a button. If you want a user to click on text, then you make that text a deeply contrasting color with an underline. These are conventions: everyone understands exactly what to do when they see them.

You would be surprised at how many Websites we’ve evaluated that just don’t do it. And it costs your experience dearly. This is one of those areas that get over-thought, and subsequently, over-designed. We’ve seen every trick in the book utilized to try and go against this convention. Making text a consistent bold with an underline as the mouse moves over it is the most common.

Graphics also suffered from every artistic interpretation of a button without actually making a button. Arrows or animation are the most frequent work-arounds. But why work around what’s easiest and most understandable?

Your number one job is to encourage clicking. If at any time a user needs to roll-over something and/or think about what will happen if they click, you’re on the way to ending the visit. No one wants to think when using your website. They just want to scan and click. Yes, regardless of educational level or Web experience.

Next: Problem #3: Everyone knows us in this industry.
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