A House Has Many Rooms

Mike Diamond

Wednesday October 14, 2009

    When we first talk to a client the first challenge to overcome is usually the overall look of the site. It doesn't matter if it's a corporate website or a local favorite for food, the first concern is always the look. To many degrees this is true, and I wouldn't do anything to sway people from being concerned with the overall look of their site, but sometimes people have a hard time envisioning what they want their site to look like. This is where I try to break it down into something that's easier to understand.

Websites are like houses. They contain pictures and windows and usually have various things happening on or in them at any given time. Picture the front door of your home, standing outside you're not really sure what is going on inside, but you get an idea what it might look like. Upon opening your door, you find yourself in your living room. A place to sit, relax, and maybe watch something interesting on the TV. Your living room probably encapsulates a large part of you. It sums your home  up and creates (hopefully) a warm environment for you to host guests. Your website is no different. When people search your site out, the short descriptions that most search engines show are very much like the cliff notes of what they'll find inside. When people visit your site, the first place they land is your living room, or in this case your Home Page. It should sum up what you are offering, showcasing, or advertising. A properly designed home page creates a place where visitors want to look around, and see what you have going on.

Your home page is not the only part of your home, though. You have so much more to show them! This is why they need to come in and see the rest of the house, or site as it is. When I talk to clients about how they want their site laid out we usually talk about navigation, or what kind of information is going to be presented on the site and how it should be grouped together. These, in effect, become the other rooms of your house, or site. I ask them how people should navigate around the site, usually if this is met with more than a few puzzled looks I go back to the house analogy: If I was a guest in your home, how would I get to the other rooms in your house? What doorways, archways or hallways could I travel through to get a better look? These doorways become your navigation bar, and allow visitors on your site to move to the different areas and see the depth of what you have to offer.

Now, many people own homes or rent apartments. Most people furnish them with their own flair and style. They pick out paint colors and hang curtains, adjusting the couch and chairs to their respective needs. On the walls they put paintings or photos of their family, or spare movie posters left over from their college dorm rooms (everyone is different). Many of our clients simply trust our experience and eye for design. We become their digital HGTV creative team for their website, and it's something we love doing, if given the creative license. We also have several clients that have a do-it-yourself attitude, real hands on folks that want to make their own changes to the the paintings on the walls, and what reading material is found. These types of clients are great to work for, because we know they will use the product we produce for them, much like the home builder has pride in knowing the use a family will get out of a great deck he builds.

The overall look and feel to your website will either enhance or hamper your traffic. We craft web solutions for enhanced retention and traffic, or to use an analogy, we build the nicest houses on the block.