Emotions (and feelings) play a strong role in the marketing and selling process. Therefore, we need to be aware of the emotional impact of our websites. So, in this article, I am considering three of the uncomfortable emotions and/or feelings that visitors experience as they surf the Internet and come in contact with various websites.

Feeling #1. Frustration happens in many ways because of thoughtless design.

• Long download time because of huge graphics, Flash introduction pages and bloated code.
• Most visitors will leave because their frustration turns into impatience.
• But, if you know that everyone who visits your site has a high-speed connection, you won?t have to worry about this.

Feeling #2. Confusion arrives in many forms.

• What is this site about? Even though we know what our site is about and why we have it, we must make sure that it is obvious to a visitor what we are working toward accomplishing through our website. It is amazing how many sites leave us wondering and confused.
• Unclear navigation provides a prime area of confusion. If the navigational tools/buttons don?t have obvious labels or are not recognizable, the visitor will have no idea where to go next or how to find what he or she is looking for.
• A shopping cart from H - - -! You know what I mean. It takes a plethora of steps and clicks to buy a small item, and when you get to the end, you are still unsure of whether it worked or not.
• Hard-to-find contact information. It is always surprising to me when I have trouble finding how to get in touch with the website?s company and/or owner. I begin to wonder if they are hiding something. I suggest including this information on every page.

Feeling #3. Distaste results from an unexpected shock.

• The site is the epitome of Kitsch (the tasteless and pretentious). I was just sent to a site like this by a woman who claimed that she is a fine designer. If she is a designer, my shock changed my mind about her credentials, no matter what she had told me.
• We all have different tastes and expectations, but when the website renders distaste in more than a few visitors, it is ready for a re-design.

This article is just scratching the surface of uncomfortable website emotions and feelings. I hope, however, it will encourage you to test your website -- or website to be -- for whether or not it is succeeding at creating the emotions and feelings you want it to.

 

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