When it comes to great website design, the cliché of what a woman wants in a man comes to mind.
It's ironic how the idealistic attributes of a good man are similar to those of a great website. You could even say that, what makes up a good man, is what will make your website great. I discovered that these points don't only pertain to designing a website for women, they should be considered whenever creating a website in general. This is definitely a valuable resource you won't want to miss.
If you follow these points, your website design will not fail.
Mysterious.
Women like their men to be mysterious, but not in a "I'm a spy, can't say a word" type of way.
When women say mysterious, they really mean quiet for most of the time. Like your website visitors, women don't want to sit and listen to you go on and on about your pet goldfish (unless, of course, your website is all about your goldfish). Your website should be mysterious by limiting the use of words and, instead, showing more action.
Don't go on and on about how great you - or your business - are. Instead, keep it short and sweet. Leave something to be questioned, be somewhat mysterious. Let examples of your work or testimonials do the talking.
Unless you're a consultant, a copy writer, or a journalist, keep the amount of copy on your website to the bare essentials. If you have a lot to say, maintain a blog - but even then, keep some things a mystery to add to the appeal.
Tall, dark, and handsome.
Handsome is a definite winner here. According to Dictionary.com, handsome means "having pleasing proportions, relationships, or arrangements, as of shapes, forms, or colors."
If you're not a professional web designer, ask one what makes up a good website layout. Proportions, and the arrangement of shapes, forms, and colors, are going to be on his or her list.
Look around the web, find out what proportions appeal to people and which ones don't. Find out what the best practices for arranging a website layout are, and use them on your own site.
As for tall and dark, this depends on the type of website you're building. More and more women are finding short men to be attractive these days.
Tall should not be considered for a portfolio or simple business website where content will be limited, but a blog or a big corporate website should be fairly tall and informative. The reason you want to avoid being tall for smaller websites goes back to being mysterious, you shouldn't cover everything in the known universe.
As for dark, it depends on the contrast you can present with your website. Having too much dark content could scare visitors away, or make them feel unwelcome.
Apple uses a tall (to fit all of their information), dark (with a lot of contrast), and handsome (simple design, great proportions) layout for their Mac OS X pages, and it looks great.
Women like their men to be mysterious, but not in a "I'm a spy, can't say a word" type of way.
When women say mysterious, they really mean quiet for most of the time. Like your website visitors, women don't want to sit and listen to you go on and on about your pet goldfish (unless, of course, your website is all about your goldfish). Your website should be mysterious by limiting the use of words and, instead, showing more action.
Don't go on and on about how great you - or your business - are. Instead, keep it short and sweet. Leave something to be questioned, be somewhat mysterious. Let examples of your work or testimonials do the talking.
Unless you're a consultant, a copy writer, or a journalist, keep the amount of copy on your website to the bare essentials. If you have a lot to say, maintain a blog - but even then, keep some things a mystery to add to the appeal.
Tall, dark, and handsome.
Handsome is a definite winner here. According to Dictionary.com, handsome means "having pleasing proportions, relationships, or arrangements, as of shapes, forms, or colors."
If you're not a professional web designer, ask one what makes up a good website layout. Proportions, and the arrangement of shapes, forms, and colors, are going to be on his or her list.
Look around the web, find out what proportions appeal to people and which ones don't. Find out what the best practices for arranging a website layout are, and use them on your own site.
As for tall and dark, this depends on the type of website you're building. More and more women are finding short men to be attractive these days.
Tall should not be considered for a portfolio or simple business website where content will be limited, but a blog or a big corporate website should be fairly tall and informative. The reason you want to avoid being tall for smaller websites goes back to being mysterious, you shouldn't cover everything in the known universe.
As for dark, it depends on the contrast you can present with your website. Having too much dark content could scare visitors away, or make them feel unwelcome.
Apple uses a tall (to fit all of their information), dark (with a lot of contrast), and handsome (simple design, great proportions) layout for their Mac OS X pages, and it looks great.
Strong and confident.
Like a man to a woman, the most appealing thing about a website is when they are confident in their own goals.
If the goal of your website is to sell your services, blatantly state that you are confident in what you do. If your goal is to change the world into using hybrid cars, make it obvious that you think it can happen. Be confident in every word put on your site.
And be strong. Whenever you receive criticism or things aren't going so great, stick with it. Visitors will see that you're struggling, and if you come out swinging you'll get 10x more visitors.
Don't just make a website, make a great website.
By making your website mysterious and not overloading visitors with words, you can create tension and appeal to a lot of people - most of which will then contact you to learn more.
If you have a lot of information, use proportions wisely to create a tall website. Focus on making your website handsome, or on having your website maintain satisfying proportions and relationships between shapes and forms.
And, lastly, be confident in what you do. Be strong and stick to it.
If you follow these points, your website will be great. If you want your website to be better than great, read some other Internet Hunger articles, such as:
"The days of typical websites are no more, say hello to the digital experience."
If you follow these points, your website will be great. If you want your website to be better than great, read some other Internet Hunger articles, such as:
"The days of typical websites are no more, say hello to the digital experience."
And if you really want to get the most out of your online experience, subscribe to Internet Hunger and receive updates daily.
