Website Design, Website Development

Stay or go: the fundamental dynamic of websites and website design

Websites are interactive, more so than any other medium. And interactivity gives users the power to choose their own path through information. This means that when marketing your business through a website, the material you want your visitors to view and read must be structured in such a fashion that it can be experienced from every direction, angle, or entry point.

This is the fundamental principle of good site architecture, navigation styles, and visual design. From every page that is created, a designer must ask himself, will my visitor stay or will she go?

Through the control of their mouse, your website audience defines their own path through the information and material you offer them online. They react to every experience online by, essentially, staying or going. Staying can simply mean viewing more pages, but it can also mean making a purchase or an enquiry, two of your ultimate website goals.

So does this mean that your site visitors hold all the power in the online environment? Any good web designer knows that interactivity does not give the user control so much as it gives the illusion of control. The web designer is the master behind the show, at work behind the scenes finding tantalising ways to capture the user’s imagination and subtly guide them towards fulfilling your online goals.