Lots of thought goes in to a websites design. The words, pictures and how it looks on screen. Also just as important is the way a visitor travels through the site. The navigation options should appear on each page, be in a consistent place and be simple to use.  No more than 3 clicks to get to the desired information.

One thing that is often over looked is how a visitor actually uses the site. Let me give you an example…

I am looking for a place to rent, house or apartment in Fumel (dept 47). I have checked many French estate agent sites but there was one site that prevented me taking a good look. I am in the habit (good or bad) of opening multiple browser tabs. I have one tab that contains the search results, I open further tabs so that I don’t loose the search and I can compare the properties. Just a matter of clicking between each one.

The site seemed to be driven by Flash and Javascript.  I could not open new tabs from the hyperlinks as they were buried in script. I found it painful to have to keep switching pages for each property in the search results. It makes for a good looking page but for me it just did not match the way I work. Not only that but many of the properties were already on other agent sites so there was no real benefit for me to stay.

It is really important to consider how a site is to be used. Visitors like to keep track of what they have seen, often as not by keeping seperate tabs open. Burying links in excessive code not only contributes to bad user experience but can also be very bad for search engines.

It does not matter how pretty a site is, if a visitor finds it diffcult to travel through it then they won’t come back.