Just like houses, websites also have specific energy flow that causes readers to sense specific feeling and atmosphere. According to the Chinese culture, the subtle energy that permeates through the universe is called Chi. By adopting this concept, we could actually create a balanced website design. As an example, the main page of our website is similar to the front door of our house. We could adapt some Feng Shui techniques to this area of our website. It is a transition between our website and the rest of the Internet. When people see our main page, they should find a personal and intimate surrounding.
A house can be seen as a more intimate space than store and office and we could adopt it into our website. When creating any page of our website, people should see and feel something personal about us, especially when we are sharing something to the public. Naturally, we want people to be comfortable in our website. They should see us an individual. In the end, they may linger and decide to make a purchase. It is important to study our consumers, because we may deal with a rather small and limited window of opportunity. When people visit our website for the first time, the early impression is quite essential.
It is important for us to significantly reduce the time people need to acclimatize with our website. Ideally, we should provide relevant information that creates anticipation and interest. Other than informing people about our company name, logo, tagline and other basic details; we should also provide clear information about our products and services. Visiting a website shouldn’t feel like getting lost in a maze. People won’t be able to figure out our website, if they see too little or too much text. People may also go to our website through search engine and when people enter, they may see confusion.
The atmosphere of our website should match our information, products and services. An atmosphere can be created with textures, colors, lighting, layout and interaction. It is also a good idea to create anticipation. We shouldn’t cause visual and information overload by showing too much in the front page or any page in our website. The turn off factor can be quite high in websites with improper atmosphere. Although modern websites no longer use Flash splash pages, it is still possible to cause the website to load longer by adding too many graphics and complicated server-side codes. In general, we should avoid any kind of website clutter, because this could cause poor flow.
Fonts that we choose shouldn’t be too difficult to read and there should be adequate contrast between the background and the font. Poor quality graphics could discourage people from coming. It would be a challenge among many business owners to find the proper balance between fulfilling customer needs and demands. In summary, the website should be quite easy to access and if we don’t do this, people could visit other websites.