In a past article I wrote about some Website Usability Basics. Touching on some of the things you need to pay attention to in order to improve your website’s  effectiveness. Today I want to continue on that theme by discussing a common error businesses make in building their websites. The error? They try and make their website presence look and flow the same as their brochures or other print materials.

This is a big no-no. The average user spends 30 seconds (that may be a high estimate) on a website if he/she is even looking for a service or product you provide (less time if they are not or don’t know what you do). You should not greet them with massive banners, logo, images, etc that act as nothing more that visual spacers. They want the content without scrolling to the right or down the page.

In print, you are limited by the size of your paper or the medium you printed on. Generally you want to fill out the entire print out and make it look really snazzy with graphics and backgrounds. On the web, unfortunately there really is no real guide. You may build your site for 1024×78 or higher, but your clients may all be using 800×600 or even lower on a mobile device. You may build your site for the masses who have access to cable or dsl, but your clients may all be dial-up.

People want to read and view things on the web differently than they do offline. There are few who would argue that point. So why try mimicking your off-line content style with your online? You can still build a website that maintains your brand’s overall look and feel, just ask yourself when in the designing process “why am I putting this online?”. If the only answer is because its in my brochure or it matches my brochure, then likely you don’t need it. Scrap it.