Treat Your Website Like its Your Physical Retail / Office Space

It is pretty common knowledge that a well laid out Office or Retail space can make or break the experience of your Professional Guest.  Take the Apple Stores for example, they are laid out in a way where everything has its own place, Staff is already ready to assist you and the store presents a clean, well lit,and everything flows from point to point.

Your Website should work in much the same way! From the landing page to the Guests being able to contact you, things should flow with an ease of use and navigation.  Take Inertial Zen Design's page for example.  The text area is easy to read, no matter the monitor or system.  Navigation is simple with one drop down menu and your current location at the top of the workspace.  The drop down menu takes things even further with a layout as follows

Menu
|_Home
|
|_About
|
|_Portfolio
|
|_Pre-Design
|
|_Contract
|
|_Fees

From there, the site is designed with a quick one click link to email (contact),the Blog that you are currently reading. and links to Social Media

by keeping the information informative, and yet simple in its explanation and deployment, customers can find what they are looking for and be on their way without feeling frustrated over having to search the entire space for content.

How does this relate to the Retail Store analogy though? That's a very good question.

Each Page in the Website actually is like working with a Department in a retail experience.  From your friendly greeter at the door (the Home Page) to your Customer Service Desk (About) to being able to work on the vision for one's site (Pre-Design), the Guest is able to come in look around (Portfolio) and even see the terms of sale (Contract) and upfront pricing (Fees) for a project should they decide to go with the services offered.

Having downloadable copies of the Fees, Pre-Design Interview and Contract, means that the Guest can pick up information to look over at their own time, compare with other service providers and even get a start envisioning what they want for their design.

By thinking of your Website's space in this manor you can quickly produce a space that is inviting and welcomes the Guest into your world, a world that can produce for you new Clients and Contacts.