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Secret #4: Professionalism
Successful marketers know that you only get one chance to make a first impression. In cyberspace, your website
is your business, and the impression it makes when a visitor first clicks through can make a small business look
Fortune 500 ... or a global enterprise look like a South Florida spam merchant.
It may be obvious that professionalism is key to capturing and keeping cyberspace customers. Perhaps not so obvious is
what it takes to make a website look professional. It's one of those cases where people often say "... I can't define it,
but I know it when I see it." Actually, professionalism can be defined as meeting two basic requirements:
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Professionalism mandates adherence to professional standards. We will address that aspect separately in our discussion of
W3C standards compliance.
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Professionalism demonstrates application of the expert knowledge base and skill sets associated with a specific field
of endeavor.
Walk into any Barnes & Noble and you'll find shelves--if not aisles--filled with books about web design.
We will not attempt to replicate or even summarize the professional web designer's knowledge base or skill set here,
but we will make two observations:
First, professional business website design requires mastery of several core competencies, including but not limited to:
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Business operations
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Marketing strategies
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Selling techniques
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Internet technologies
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Software engineering
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Graphics design
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Copy writing
This blend of expertise cannot be developed overnight. It is not provided by "do-it-yourself" alternatives. And no
neophyte computer skills can compensate for the lack of it.
Second, although identifying all the elements of professional web design is beyond the scope of this discussion, there
are three characteristics which suggest their presence:
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Clarity ... of purpose, presentation and organization.
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Consistency ... in appearance, imagery and architecture.
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Content ... that is credible, concise and correct.
Clarity
Clarity of purpose ... is achieved by making the mission of the website and the message of the web page clear and
unmistakable. Attention must be paid not only to what is being said, but also how it is worded, and how it might be
(mis)perceived or (mis)interpreted.
Clarity of presentation ... is achieved by optimizing the visual appeal and readability of the web pages. Graphics,
backgrounds,
colors,
fonts, space, their attributes and their associations all have a significant impact on customer
experience as well as content comprehension.
Clarity of organization ... is achieved by logically dividing content and functionality among the pages of the website,
neatly arranging the elements of each page, and providing site navigation that is unifying and unambiguous.
Consistency
Consistency in appearance ... is accomplished by developing an integrated look-and-feel or template for the website,
and then uniformly applying that template in the design and layout of each web page. As visitors navigate from one
web page to another, it should be obvious to them that they are still at the same website.
Consistency in imagery ... is accomplished by selecting images and creating graphics that are not only compatible with
the website template but also reinforce the web page message. A picture is worth a thousand words, and it should be the
right thousand words.
Consistency in architecture ... is accomplished by applying standardized navigation utilities and common linking
conventions throughout the website. The architecture conveyed to a visitor by any arbitrary landing page should
remain constant throughout their visit.
Content
Content is credible ... if the message it conveys is obviously true, rationally incontrovertible, persuasively delivered
and authoritatively verified. Assertions should be supported or supportable, and visitors must be able to believe what
is being said in the context of who is saying it and why.
Content is concise ... if the proposition is stated and case made in as few words as possible. Where extensive content
is critical, use a top-down presentation so that VITOs (very important top officers) have a quick summary, and
SeeMores (people who always want to see more information) can drill down for the details.
Content is correct ... if the information is reliably accurate and there are no semantic, syntactic or spelling errors.
Correctness, like so many aspects of web design, is best assessed in the context of the target market. As such,
it should be viewed as a relative more so than absolute measure.
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