Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
I receive of a “quote of the day” message from a charitable organization. Today’s got me thinking about simplifying websites. First, the quote:
You know you’ve achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
First, a couple of quick notes about the quote:
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is often misspelled “Antoine de St-Expurey”. It was in the quote this am, and I found the misspelling propagated to several other blogs. Yuck.
- Saint-Exupéry wrote “The Little Prince”. Link to it on Amazon below.
- He died young–44–but has both an international airport and an asteroid named after him. Pretty cool.
OK–on to my point:
Is your website simple enough? Is it simple to navigate? Does it have a simple message? Is it simple to understand?
If you answered no — or you’re not sure — then you need to simplify your website. Why? Because you have about 10 seconds to grab your visitors’ attention and convince them they’re in the right place.
Yep: 10 seconds.
If you can’t get their attention in 10 seconds, the people you’ve worked so hard to attract will leave.
So here’s what you have to ask yourself:
Is your message simple enough to understand within 10 seconds?
Is your website simple enough to navigate within 10 seconds?
Is your theme simple enough for them to remember within 10 seconds?
If not, DON’T PANIC. Just tweak your website. Chances are, you won’t need a complete redesign–just an adjustment here or there.
Here’s an interesting article on this.
“Capturing Your Site Visitors’ Attention” from the good folks over at Entrepreneur.com.