5 Fallacies About Websites

1. If you build it they will come.

Wrong - Website users choose where they want to visit.

Challenge - How do you get your audience to visit? And how do you keep them coming back?

2. Others see the website the way you see it.

Wrong - Websites look different with:

• different software
• different equipment
• different settings.

Challenge - How do you make it useful to all your users?

3. A picture is worth 1000 words.

Wrong - Only a picture that communicates well is worth 1000 words.

• article - 925 words, 7k
• picture - 22k

Challenge - How can you utilize images most effectively?

4. Users want to interact with website owners.

Wrong - Information seekers want to interact with the website ... they want information, not a relationship, contest, or survey.

• Good hypertext linking - users interact with the site to create their own nonlinear path to information.

• Easy to find email address helps user interact with website owner when needed.

Challenge - How can you create the right balance for your audience, between too personal and too distant?

5. Websites are like other media.

Wrong - Studies continue to show that websites are a medium which we don't fully understand and which is changing very quickly.

• A CRT doesn't make it like television.
• Text doesn't make it like print.

Challenge - How can you ensure your audience is getting what they need?

© 1999-2011 Fuzzy Logic
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

403-283-9268    info@fuzzylogic.ca

Posted May 3, 1999