The question of how to reach an audience beyond the Netherlands (or any small country) is an important challenge both from a business perspective and a web design one. As well-designed web site supports and implements business goals, the two are ultimately intertwined. Put simply, people won’t use a website they cannot understand. At the same time, people usually prefer to read content in their native languages. Therefore the challenge is to maximise breath, using globally popular languages such as English and Spanish, and intimacy, using users’ natives languages. One good solution is supporting multiple languages on a site, even if one language is prioritised. This can be achieved in several ways, though I usually recommend some sort of content management system to manage versions of the same content in multiple languages.

Of course, the inevitable retourt is, ‘Why bother trying to reach clients beyond my home country?’ I answer, ‘Why not?’  The beauty of the internet is its global reach, which means that any business is available through their website to any potential client anywhere in the world (barring legal restrictions, of course). More and more when people are looking for the best business or product, they aren’t looking for the best in their own country. For instance, I own two tshirts by the British cartoonist John Allison. Why should someone in a small town outside of Manchester sell a tshirt to someone across the globe in Silicon Valley? Why not? I was happy to pay for the extra shipping, so there was no extra cost for him, and he’s gained a loyal customer. My Books Rule tshirt has been getting compliments from San Francisco to London to Amsterdam, also surely good for his business. At the same time, competition is also becoming global. I imagine John’s main competition in t-shirt sales are other web cartoonists, wherever they may be, and t-shirt companies such as Threadless, based in Chicago.

So some of the many ideas that I provide help answer that Why?, after which the How? becomes obvious. There are are many good companies in China, India and elsewhere that can also provide answers, but I promise you they are not much, if any, cheaper than me.

1. Sites can’t control the order in which viewers see their pages. With printed documents people usually read them starting at the first page and ending at the last one, but this is rarely the case for websites. For many small sites, the majority of their traffic comes from Google and other search engines. Search engines direct users to specific pages, so often users will never see the ‘front’ or ‘main’ page of the site. Therefore, every page should be able to stand on its own without any context that following a pathway the site creates developed might give.
2. Every user will see the site differently. Some users have 800 x 600 pixel displays and are running Internet Explorer 5.5 in Windows, others may view the site using Firefox 2.02 on a Linux machine with two 2560 x 1600 pixel displays. Operating system, screen resolution, web browser type and version – all these things can contribute to make the same website look differently on two different machines. Thus the design demands are very different for a web designer than for a print designer. A print designer making a brochure, for example, knows almost all the display details beforehand: they know the weight and type of paper, the colour tones, the paper dimensions, the printing process, and they know that, baring printing errors their fonts and images will be displayed correctly. There is no such certainty in web design. Thus the layout and design of a web page should be one of ratios and relationships, rather than specific distances. A successful web design acknowledges the inherent uncertainty of what the page will be displayed and embraces flexibility.
3. Sacrifices will have to be made. Fonts are nice and a well-designed font used to support the text it is displaying can be very powerful. Unfortunately there are very few fonts that can be found across all computers. While various workarounds exist, there is no complete solution. Using a digital non-text format that allows including fonts, such as Flash or even plain images, is at best an inadequate solution as it often has a negative impact on usability.
4. The designer has much more power than in print. This may seem counter-intuitive after the previous points but whatever may be lost in fidelity to the designer’s original aesthetic vision is, in my opinion, more than made up for by the interactive and multimedia elements designers can create on webpages. Most users won’t notice that you’ve gotten that line spacing exactly perfect and consistent on all browsers but they will notice interesting, useful and interactive site features. Users can switch around a page’s contents, change font sizes, and turn the background bright purple. The webdesigner is an enabler, helping people gather and experience media in an optimal way.
5. HTML means HyperText Markup Language. When a designer writes a web page, they are writing in a specific language (HTML) how hypertext should be marked up. Put perhaps more simply, they are creating hypertext – that is, text with rich characteristics, including links to other text and media. At the simplest this means that liberal use should be made of links (though this would be too much). The relatively frequent use of links enables web site viewers to easily find the content they desire and allows the designer to provide additional information without cluttering up the page or forcing it upon those who are not interested in it.
6. Let Users Leave. In a misguided effort to keep users, sites sometimes open links to third-party sites in a pop-up window or within a frame. While both methods are sometimes useful, it is best to avoid them whenever possible. That way users’ expectations for hyperlinks are not contradicted and users are not annoyed. If your site is good, then users will come back.

Many websites have flashy animations or videos automatically playing when you come to them. I find this very ugly and annoying and I am not alone. Most users now have pop-up blockers and some are starting to block Flash. In addition to being annoying, this practice has several other drawbacks. Users are forced to download large media files in order to see the site. This will slow the loading of the site when speed, particularly the first time a user visits a website, is essential to a pleasant experience. It is better to let users explicitly request the videos they wish to view, letting those on slow connections make a conscious choice to download the media. This way users will not erroneously attribute slow speeds to the site. Likewise those in a public environment, such as libraries, often wish minimise sound coming from their computers and will not look kindly on a site that blares music or sound effects without warning. Their initial response is usually to close the offending site, not turn down their speakers.

These annoying site ‘features’ are implemented, I believe, by people that think their sites need eye- and ear-catching elements to bring users to their sites. This is a mistake: users are already at the sites, so the challenge is to keep them there. Web surfers are a notoriously fickle lot and anything that creates an unpleasant experience will cause them to immediately surf elsewhere and never come back.

The best way to encourage users to stay on a site is to create a pleasant experience that quickly gives the user the content they are seeking. If you are writer, the content that users are seeking are examples of your work, in whatever form you chose to share it. If you are a business that is much more physically-based, the content is often your business details: address, opening hours, and contact information. A website should be designed around the main reason users would come to it. For more on this, I encourage you to check out Jyri Engeström’s thinking on social objects (I will post on this in the future).

Don’t make the user hunt or beg for this information! A web surfer looking for a plumber to fix the toilet currently flooding her house is not in the mood for a video about the company’s history and specialities! Instead, she will take one glance on the site, not see a phone number, and go to the next result in Google. Incidentally, web advertising is moving away from pay per click ad sales towards time-based sales, so the incentive is all the stronger for websites to encourage users to linger, rather than scare them away.

But by creating a pleasant and efficient experience on your site, aren’t you reducing the amount of time users spend on your site? For one browsing session, this is may happen. However, a pleasant site will attract repeat visitors. Your goal with your website is ultimately to make money, so you want to turn website visitors into customers. A pleasant website builds relationships with potential and current customers so that they wish to stay in contact with your company and will look favourably on your products and services.

Simply put, happy visitors are repeat visitors and repeat visitors are repeat customers.