One of the most important points about web sites is that designers think that visitors really care about them. The truth is they don't because your site visitors do not have the luxury to spend endless hours sitting around waiting around to be amused.

For customers its great to get something for free on line like a free gift, free prize or a special gift for buying more than a certain amount!Customers love this and will feel special but they wont feel special if you ask them for enormous amounts for personal data. Amazon rewads you for giving by offering you other areas to look when you offer up your valuable time and money to provide your personal details.

Another thing...people generally do not like to be hit with multiple offers all at the same time.. If you are offering 40 % off levi jeans now and 60 % off ladies track shoes and 30 % off accessories it makes it hard to choose but if you have a single large red or orange button right next to the discount sign then there is only one thing for the customer to do and that is press the big button.Simple.

Pop ups have to be the worst tool around and they make me mad as hell but... and this is a big BUT... they do have one simple useful purpose.Imagine you buy your books and DVD and just before confirming your payment you get a popup that says:'thanks choose your free gift'. Now that is a great way to use a popup,guaranteed.

Another thing for designers to beware of is the use of numerous drop down menus. I absolutely hate having to choose my state,my country and my region. Customers do not want to deal with this but some techie somewhere insists that they want you to wade through this unnecessary. A post code or zip code is essential, an email address is essential and a shipping address for goods is needed. What is not essential are having to provide different addresses unless of course the goods are being bought by Mr A and being sent to Miss B somewhere else. This type of duplication is about lazy IT and web teams not having thought through the customer process at all.

The best one so far is when you are spending time registering on a site and then having used your time to register you are directed away to another site or place and when you get there you have been led round th bush and all you wanted in the first place was a price for a piece of software. Absolutely poor show.

The number of times pricing is simply buried in a site or is not available makes one wonder why the vendor sells on line? If you are offering products on line, pricing needs to be clear, correct and up to date. Its important to also be clear upfront about added costs like postage,VAT or any other rates that need adding. It is maddening to come to buy a product and then see that the postage is more than the value of the goods.

Airline offers have to be the worst culprits of all. They hook you in with a ridiculous price, send you to a page unrelated to their site, offer prices up to 3 times more than they quoted and then having spent money getting you there make it as hard as possible to find the right flight at the right price.What they should be doing is reducing the number of flights they show you and hone in on the ones that meet your price range then help you quickly and easily to find the right price and time.Do they actually do this, in the vast majority of cases they do not. Most flight search engines throw up hundreds of overpriced flights departing at the wrong time for the wrong price.No wonder the airlines lose money and cut routes. There is no focus on the customer at all.

Finally there are web designers who get it right and they are to be congratulated, they have provided quick easy access, automated all the dull boring parts, not asked you to register, only asked for an email address, made paying easy and painless and ensured that all goods are priced and the pricing can be seen.

These are my pet hates but also my way of saying, please use common sense, please think about the massive impact your site layout has on customers and their ability to buy your products and services or not.Most of all remember you have spent your hard earned money promoting your site and getting the visitors to your site, give them a great experience and a positive and memorable one after all a loyal customer these days is truly a rare commodity.

John Norton

John is a business development and web solutions specialist who has helped businesses develop over 130 million euros in new This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

www.leaping-ahead.com