8/24/2010
Design Websites from the Customer's Point of View
We recently launched a new website for CookTek®, a leading manufacturer of commercial induction cooking equipment. Our lead designer on the project, C.J. Oltman, was telling me that one of the key ideas behind the new design was an emphasis on simplicity. He wanted the website to be sleek, easy to navigate, and understated enough to let the products (which are fascinating) speak for themselves.
Avoid the Design Dump
C.J. got me thinking about a connection between content and design I had never considered. On the content side, we often run into the problem of saying too much – of doing an “information dump” where we throw every company and product benefit into every page of Web content. This ends up confusing, frustrating or boring the visitor, and can’t help but reduce conversions.
On the design side, it occurs to me websites easily fall into the same trap: too many design elements, too much going on, too many colors, too many fonts, too much animation. Again, the bottom line is a confused, frustrated, or bored visitor.
Here’s what the new CookTek® site looks like. I’ll point out some things below the image.
Induction Cooking with the Cook in Mind
(Click on the image to go to this Web page.)
As someone who looks at tons of websites every day, I appreciate the simplicity of the design. How does it strike you?
- Minimal, unobtrusive text
- Unmistakable call to action
- jQuery animation with useful information and images
- Navigation menus, including drop-downs, are big, making mouse manoeuvers easy
- Good amount of white space
Still tweaking left to be done, but I think this is a style of website we should see more often. I don’t know too much about the restaurant business, but I do know people who work in restaurants and hospitality are busy. Web design (and content) should make it easy for them to find what they need online and get back to work.
Over to You
What are your thoughts? Do you have examples of user-friendly websites to share?
11 Responses to Design Websites from the Customer's Point of View
I believe in simplicity. I’ve done a few websites for a nonprofit organization and had to explain that we needed simple, not flash. Whiz bang slows things down and distracts from the important thing… content. About to embark on another nonprofit design using tweaked templates. Hope it goes smoothly…
HI Meryl, Best of luck on your new project. Obviously I think you have the right design concept and the “whiz bang” description is perfect. As with content, much of the art of design is whittling everything down to just what’s important.
I agree, you do not need to bombard customers with too much design, sometimes simplicity is the key. It can help your website to become much clearer to read and navigate through. Even if you choose to create a simple design, you can still me creative. Small style elements can give your website character, like the CookTek design has the red to complement the shades of grey used, with the use of gradients so that it doesn’t look to flat and dotted lines used to break up the text. This is a nice design Brad, a good balance between simplicity, design and content.
Hi Mandeep, Thanks for pointing out those design nuances of color. I’m the sort of person who seldom notices those things – but the overall effect registers. In design it seems to be the little things that make the big impression.
Hi Brad, I really like the CookTek site. Today it’s even more important to have fast loading simple designs in order to have a mobile friendly site. With so many accessing the web from a smartphone, designs must work well for mobile and large screen.
Karen, Great point about mobile access and site design! There’s a WordPress plugin I installed recently that makes WP sites mobile-friendly – that’s going to be a standard plugin on any future projects we do. Simple rules!
Brad, I installed a WP plugin a few months ago also for that same reason. Although, I don’t have a smartphone so can’t use it myself!, lol. However, I agree it will be standard operating procedure particularly since mobile search is really at the forefront of development, with many innovations underway. The next decade will be interesting!
Brad,
At last!
A web site which doesn’t confront visitors with a ridiculously over-congested home page trying to shove anything and everything down their throats.
A web site whose designers (obviously Straight North) understand that its target audience are busy and just want to be able to get on and find what they what.
At last, a web site that actually makes the company look professional and makes its offering look enticing.
Together with Cooktek, you guys have made a breakthrough. Other web site designers would be well advised to sit up and take notice.
Hi Andrew, Thank you very much for the strong vote of confidence. CJ feels as though design standards are moving in the direction you describe, which is a welcome turn of events to be sure. Considering how little time we spend on individual Web pages, “less is more” is definitely the way to go. When I see a Web page crammed with information, it begins to give me a headache. This seems like an obvious reaction, but many companies don’t seem to be ready for it. I wonder if this is because they are so passionate about what they do, they have an irresistible urge to tell the world everything at every opportunity.
Simplicity sells! Well done, Brad. I love how all of the key messages are ‘above the fold’.
Just a small thing, the banner ad changes very quickly – I only get half way through reading each spread before it changes. Is this by design?
Best, Robin
Hi Robin – No, certainly that’s not by design. Thank you for the feedback & I will make sure our designers review it.