Web Usability: Less Is More

[Aryeh Powers]

In the Web design and content development industries, I have begun to see a trend in successful Web endeavors. This is the “less is more” trend. With all the Web sites out there offering multiple perspectives on the same product, service or industry, it’s hard to reach a significant audience and even if you do manage to reach them, how do you hold their attention? Why should someone read your blog on “the best candy bar” when there’s ten others to choose from?

I believe that making a sticky and useful Web site needs to start with the following consideration: Are you making it easy for the visitor to get the information that you claim to offer. To make it easiest for your content to be digestible, you need to keep the text short (be brief), to the point (not go off on any wild tangents) and offer something of real value (an opinion may or may not be of value to some people; sorry to disappoint). Put yourself in the Web surfer’s shoes. I can tell you from my own experience that the most ketchy and sticky Web sites in my mind are the ones who's graphic's immediately grab my attention and have a small enough content section that it effectively tells me “I can handle what’s here and wont short circuit from the keyword stuffed text”.

I was recently checking out the Groupon Web site and clicked the “about us” page. I was very impressed at the way they conveyed the “about” message. The content there was short, to the point and interested me, all at the same time. When speaking with clients who are interested in designing new Web sites or writing content for their already existing Web sites, I always try and convey the following message: if you were surfing the Web and came across your own Web site, would you be interested in spending time there and would you see value in the content presented?