Designing a website is sort of like planning a large event, after a trip down the California coast to two large events I picked up on a few things. Mostly I wanted to complain, but these same complaints can be made of websites, and a few of my designs are guilty of them too.

Plan It Out

Bimmerfest, ah how I love thee. Tons of nice BMWs and even more traffic, a lot more traffic. Bimmerfest has been going on a few years now, and there is always a traffic jam. I can excuse the traffic outside the event but it is inside the event that gets my panties in a bunch. Whats this got to do with web design? Not a whole lot but I’ll try to relate it.

With some planning the traffic inside the event could be kept mostly flowing. There is a lot of bottlenecks when people are trying to leave and enter at the same time. This can also happen in design. There can be bottlenecks or choke points in navigation, places were clicking stops being intuitive and grinds to a halt, this can lead to visitors getting frustrated and leaving.

Planning out navigation(or directing traffic) will not only prevent choke points but also help you better plan out your website. Visitors will be happy, you’ll be happy, and I’ll get a good parking place at the car show.

Make It Obvious

The next stop on my trip was the Red Bull Air Race, which I highly recommend seeing in person…once. My first problem was when I bought tickets I assumed they were seats, they weren’t, so I had to push through the 54,000 people to get to where I could see. Oh well for me, but if you mislead visitors on your website(especially in sales) they will not be so understanding.

My second problem was finding the place. No directions on the website(which with all the map API’s is inexcusable) and no signs pointing the way in downtown San Diego. I ended up walking 15 minutes to the island because even people from San Diego couldn’t figure out where to go.

So make things painfully obvious! Don’t assume because you know where South Embarcadero Island is that everyone else does. In design this would be akin to mystery meat navigation or links with no visual cues. People would rather have their hand held and treated like a 3 year old than to not be able to find the information at all. So put out your hand, spit shine their cheek, smile, and take them to where they can give you money.

Leave a Backdoor

One thing about Bimmerfest is if you know Santa Barbara and the entrances, you can get in without waiting very long. Like experienced or returning visitors, I know my way around, and can go through the backdoor.

Depending on your type of site, you may also be able to leave navigation aimed at returning users. This way more mature users can bypass the hand holding and get straight to what they want. Keyboard shortcuts are a great way to do this, experienced users will know they are there, but it won’t get in the way of new users.

Sum it up

Plan out traffic whether it be foot, car, boat, or packets on the inter tubes. Make sure you have a plan to handle all the people.

Tell people where to go. Like a sheep herding dog, bark until everyone goes in the right direction. This can be a map, signs, ropes, web addresses, whatever just make sure it is plastered EVERYWHERE.