A few weeks ago I went to my hairdresser. I told her that I am starting Grit Webstudio with my sister and she seemed very interested. Then she told me that she recently had her new website made by one of her clients who had told her that he builds websites. Because she was on a tight budget and he wasn’t asking too much it seemed a good deal to her. Since I have knowledge about websites, she asked me to have a quick look at it. On her computer the site looked nice, especially because of the beautiful pictures her husband, a photographer, had taken at photo shoots of their clients. We chatted a little bit more before I went home.
Analysing her website
Because I’m always curious about how others are doing their work and want to learn more from them to get better, I started to check the site further. I discovered different points of improvement. These points and my solutions for a more user friendly site are:
| Points of improvement | Solutions |
| The website didn’t look the same on my laptop and my smartphone. | To avoid this, choose a theme for your site that is ‘responsive’. |
| There were menu items referring to pages without content. This is annoying for site visitors (clients). | Don’t show menu items until you have content on your pages. |
| Prices and FAQ were shown as one menu item. | Split these two different subjects to make the site more clear. |
| The color combinations weren’t chosen well. For example, black text on a dark grey background is difficult to read. | Think about the contrast when choosing colors. Make it easy for your visitors’ (clients’) eyes. |
| An ‘About‘ button was in the right bottom corner but not visible on every page. | This should have been a menu item instead of a button, because it’s important information for clients and publicity for yourself. Don’t let clients search for it. |
| The portfolio had pictures of ‘decapitated’ persons and pictures that weren’t well aligned. | Show complete persons and align pictures well for a professional look. |
| The contact form was missing a map and route information. | Put this information on your site to make it easier for local clients to find you. |
| There were no social media buttons on the site. | Place these buttons on your site to make it easier for clients to share your information. This could lead to more clients. |
| There were links that led to the same page, so they have no real function. | Delete such links because they don’t add anything. They could only annoy the visitors of your site. |
| Information was not presented clearly. | To present information more clearly, e.g. show prices in a table and add empty lines between FAQ’s. |
This is what I will advise my hairdresser so that she can improve her site.
Only one chance to make a first impression!
These days a good site is very important because most people search on the internet for all kinds of products and services and when your site is not okay, they won’t have faith to do business with you. And like in real life, you only have one chance (or 7 seconds online) to make a first impression, so it better be a good one!
Ready to be user friendly?
In case you would like to have a new site that is attractive and user friendly, or you want your current site to be improved or restyled, you’re welcome to contact us and we’ll be happy to help you.