Getting the Web Right

Rick Borstein, FAAS Webmaster

Here's something to think about:

1. What does a visitor to your club web site want to find out?
2. What do you want to say to site visitors?

These two questions could be identical or they could be very different.

Many visitors will find your site via Google or another search engine. These folks may want to find out information about a specific fish or aquarium-keeping practice. It’s great to supply this information, and it may partially fulfill the mission statement for your organization.

This information attracts new visitors to your site so that you can present them with the information in you really want them to get such as meeting information, how to join, your club events, etc.

Thus, a good aquarium club site includes both generic hobby-based information and information about the club. As I have looked at many aquarium club sites on the web, they are sorely lacking in one or the other.

Writing for the Web

This column is one continuous stream of text. Unfortunately, this writing style doesn’t work well for the web.

Reading computer screens is tiring for the eyes. Here’s an eye-opening statistic— the average web site visitor will only spend 9 seconds on your page before clicking to something else. Your job is to convey your message fast. Your writing needs to reflect this.

Some general recommendations:

Be concise. Write and re-write to make your web prose as terse possible.
Use bulleted lists.
 Instead of a paragraph about why your club is great consider a bulleted list instead. E.g.

• Knowledgeable speakers
• Great raffle prizes
• Auction at every meeting
• Learn from your fellow hobbyists

Avoid long paragraphs. On the web, it’s OK to have a one-sentence paragraph.

Use short, attention grabbing headlines.

Keep them no longer than 5– 6 words.

Be readable.

Don’t use white text on a black background or yellow on blue, etc. Why are most books black type on white paper? Because it’s the easiest to read.

The web is not a typewriter. Never put two spaces at the end of a sentence.

Navigation on the Web

Web site visitors don’t like to scroll. They also won’t give your site a lot of time to “grab” them. The best sites are “sticky”— users want to stay on these sites for a while because of the content and easy navigation. Let me tell you about my eBay habit sometime!

Your site navigation should be clear to the average web site visitor. Note that I didn’t say to the average web user. I’m the Webmaster for the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association. I do not expect gcca.net to appeal to non-hobbyists. However, if you know what a cichlid is, you will likely stick around.

Your job in designing the navigation for your site is to correctly anticipate not only what your site visitors want, but, how they will want to get to it. If you’re designing a web site you’ve suddenly become a Human Interface Engineer. The user interface (UI) of your site is critical.
I strongly advise prototyping your design before you launch or redesign your site. Your prototype design will be housed on your site in a place where web site visitors won’t come across it accidentally. Some folks call this a staging server. Think of your prototype as your personal web sandbox. This is your place to play with your design and content until you get it right. When I redesigned the gcca.net site early in the year, the prototype design sat on a staging server for month while our club board and members commented on the design. Call or email several club members and ask them to review your prototype. You’ll be surprised about how many things you didn’t consider!

Site Navigation

Global Navigation. These are set of links that will appear on every page of your site. Never strand your visitor with no way to go back. Global navigation is most often placed on the top or left side of a trouble. Take a look at the sites you really like. Sites like Amazon or eBay. What is good about these sites?

Global navigation links are often buttons rather than text links.

Local Navigation. Local navigation is generally used on web sites with over ten pages. Local navigation can be thought of as section navigation and is usually a text link. You will use local navigation so that a visitor to your BAP section can easily navigate to each relevant BAP page within the section.

Chunk information. Divide information between several pages of your site. For example, you might consider putting your BAP Rules, BAP Schedule and BAP Standings on separate pages. Your local site navigation should allow your visitor to click a link to each page.

Use anchors. An HTML anchor allows you to place a link in a page to a location further down the page. Anchors are recommended for long test passage that logically shouldn’t be broken apart. For example, on gcca.net, we have 53 cichlid profiles posted. In each profile, there are text links for logical sections of the page such as Habitat, Care, Feeding, Breeding and Availability. This allows a site visitor to easily click the section they want instead of scrolling to find it.

Be consistent. Your navigation scheme should be consistent from page to page. It is hard enough for a user to figure out the first page of your site. Don’t throw them a curve on every page.

Name navigation elements tersely. The global navigation on your site should preferably be only one or two words. For example, create a “Join” button instead of a “Join the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association” button.

No Under Construction notices. If part of your site isn’t done yet, don’t post a link to it. Using “Under Construction” notices just screams amateur to me…

Prioritize. The really important stuff should only be one click away. For example, the speaker, topic, speaker bio and directions to your meeting should be no more than one click away from your home page.

Lots of doors that go somewhere. There should be more than one link to your meeting information. Obviously, there should be a link from your home page. There should also be links from your Calendar page, Event pages, and so forth. You never know what page in your site a visitor will land on from Google. You need lots of ways to get new folks to your meetings.

Simplicity. Strive for elegance in your navigation scheme. It should be so incredibly obvious that anyone can use it. When I first started building web sites, I used to get calls and emails asking where to find a piece of information. The information was on the site, but it was too hard for folks to find. Never blame your site visitors— blame yourself. Rethink your navigation so that even the most brain-dead visitor can find what they want.

Basic Page Navigation

Organizing Your Web Site

Your site organization is critical if your site visitors are to have a positive experience. You need to figure this out before you design any navigation for your site. Most of the big web design agencies I have visited go into a room and chart this out on a giant white board. You should, too! Plan ahead!
Here are my suggestions for a simple aquarium club web site:

1)	Home Page— central point with links to all items below. Without leaving your home page, your site visitor should be “teased” into learning more about your next meeting, auctions, etc. Your home page is like the Boardwalk property in the Monopoly game. It is highly valuable. Don’t crowd it. Include only the key links that drive people to your meetings and revenue-generating auctions and swap meets.
2)	Calendar of Events— a list of upcoming meetings with speakers, auctions or swap meets, etc. Each list item should link to a detail page for the event as appropriate.
3)	Next meeting information— detailed page with information about your speaker
4)	How to join the club— a membership form, dues, etc.
5)	Club Information page— your mission, history, and why to join.
6)	Meeting & Event Notification— how to sign up for email notification of your club meetings and events.

A Basic Aquarium Site Navigation

Conclusions

One resource that I found very helpful when I was first designing web sites was Jacob Nielsen’s use-it.com site. Jacob has some extreme views about site design, so you should take some of what he says with a grain of salt. I highly recommend you read his articles on writing for the web. A little research up front can really pay dividends later on as your site gets bigger.