Tips for making Customer - Friendly Website ?

You design a Web site, especially an e-commerce site, you want people to visit often, for reasonably long periods of time, and to make purchases. To do this, you must make your site easy to use. Here are 10 tips for making your site customer-friendly:

1. Keep Your Pages Fast-Loading:- Web users are impatient. Don't force visitors to wait through JavaScript-enabled introductions or QuickTime movies before they can enter your site. Always provide a "Skip" or "Stop" button when using these elements.

2. Avoid Dead-End Pages:- Always offer your customers a way out of a page. This could mean including a link to the main page on every page. Users are becoming increasingly accustomed to a navigation bar that links to all the sections of a site, and company logos that act as a navigation link to the home page. You can also offer text links on each page for going to "Top of page" or "Back".

3. Avoid Overusing Graphics, Animation, and Multimedia:- If they don't add functionality, don't use graphics, animation, movies, sounds, and so on. Only use these features if they enhance your customer's experience. Product photos are often valuable additions to your site, but you might want to minimize the delays they could cause in load times by using thumbnail (small) images. You can link these thumbnail images to larger, more detailed images for customers who are interested in having a closer look. You can even include technology that allows viewers to zoom in on features or rotate the view of the product. Limit the number of images on each page for faster load times. If pages or files will take some time to download, it's best to forewarn your customers by noting the file size next to the link to them. If anything, users have less patience for state-of-the-art technology these days as the Web becomes dominated by new users, and the upgrade speeds for new browsers and plug-ins decline.

4. Don't Assume That Everyone Uses the Same Browser:- Avoid designing for a certain browser or trying to force a certain look. Some Web authors make extensive use of elaborate formatting tricks in a determined effort to coerce a client program into creating a specific visual rendering. These pages look good when viewed with the author's browser of choice, but look bad in most or all other browsers.

5. Provide a Text Option:- Browser preferences allow users to turn off graphics if they choose, and those who are using older browsers may not have the ability to view all images. So provide text links or alternative text tags in addition to graphics, including navigational buttons or bars.