The Purpose of Website Functionality + Tips for the Do-it-Yourselfers

Have you ever gone to a website and not been able to find what you need? Or been taken somewhere you didn’t want to go? It seems like in the last couple of weeks I have been asking myself these questions. I go to make a payment or schedule a service and I’m left feeling clueless. Where am I? Where have I been taken? Am I on a different site? How come I can’t find the information I need?

It is critical that when designing a website, you think about the user.

Knowing your audience is the most important factor to creating a successful website. Making it easy for your customer to find what they are looking for is what can make or break a website. And over time, with the help of analytics, you can gain an even greater understanding of your audience and what information they are seeking on your site. For example, what pages they visit the most, which products they view, where your traffic is coming from and much more. This knowledge can help you re-organize and adjust your site so your users can easily access the information they want.

Examples of Poor User Experience
I went to order plants the other day from a nursery in the town over and they didn’t give me the option to pick up (I thought maybe when I was checking out they would) and charged me $20 shipping. Additionally, their contact information wasn’t included in the email confirmation they sent, nor on their website. I had to go to their Facebook page to figure out how to contact them. They were the friendliest, most understanding people, but they were also lucky I didn’t give up and just cancel my order (if I could figure out how to do that). I also subscribed to this application that I no longer wanted nor found useful and every time I went to their website or into the application, I couldn’t find the unsubscribe easily. I had to go to their FAQ section which took me to a dead link so I am left having to give them a call to unsubscribe (seems like they don’t want their users to unsubscribe).

We understand what it’s like to have a new business, the budget is tight and you become accountant, marketer, receptionist AND web designer. So here are a few tips on how to make your site functional:

Functionality Tips to Make Your Website a Success

  • Try to put yourself in your customer’s shoes: where do they want to go? What information do they need to get? What is important to them? Then design a site map/structure to your website that shows what content goes where.
  • Make the information your customer needs easily accessible and prominently linked on the home page 
  • Give your customer access to information in 1-2 clicks

  • Give your customer a way to contact you – a form or a phone number

  • Have a fast website – you will lose customers if it takes too long to load

  • Always provide a shipping, return, and cancellation policy (if applicable)

  • Set up automatic email responses to make your customers feel acknowledged for interacting or purchasing from your website

  • Keep your site clean and un-cluttered, to make it easy for your customers to find what they are looking for

  • Make your site responsive so it can be viewed on ALL devices

Just remember Abraham Lincoln’s quote: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

Make sure you factor your users into the planning of your site and you are sure to be a success!