What I want is a radical cutting edge site

So what I want is a radical cutting edge site with loads of flash intro's and games and all that stuff. Right?

Wrong! Well you could be right if you are creating a site for radical, cutting edge loving people but if your site is meant to be used by lots of people then what you need is a static, run-of-the-mill, obvious kind of site.

I know this sounds boring and you think it will turn people off but the truth is it will do the opposite. You see most people don't like to have to learn new things every time they do something. What happens is that when Jane/Joe Average visits your site they are expecting it to work in a certain way. Things like navigation bar down the left hand side; logo in the top left hand corner that is linked back to the home page; home page that is actually called a home page etc. If they go to your site and they start looking around and think lets get back to the home page but instead all they can find are buttons that say "HQ" or "Church" instead of "Home" then they will be lost and decide to go somewhere else. If they are looking for the nav bar and it is hidden at the bottom (which is actually off their screen because somebody forget to tell them that everyone is using 1024x768 these days instead of 800x600) they will soon go somewhere else.

Sad but true most people like ordinary. This is one of those times when what people really want is to get to the content of the site. They don't want to have to learn how to get it and they don't want to have to re-learn it the next time they visit. Have you ever visited the Supermarket only to discover they have moved the milk to another isle (grrrrrrrr!!!) annoying isn't it. It is the same thing with a web site, if you have to learn a new way of getting around for every site you visit it gets very frustrating. You want quick easy content.

There are exceptions of course and they are things like cutting edge radical sites and artists/graphic designers sites. We all expect to be forced to search around for stuff on these sites and so will take the time to learn how to get around. People who visit these kind of sites are expecting something different/radical. However most of the time we can't be bothered.

The web is the same as Church. Whatever we do in Church will filter out a few other people. If we have a room full of old people, young people will be unlikely to visit. If we sing hymns only then those who like worship songs will probably stay away etc. You get the point I hope. If we have loads of flash stuff on a site then those who don't have the plug-in (this is a surprisingly large number despite the Macromedia rhetoric) will go off somewhere else. If our site is hard to navigate then anyone who is a little tired or has been looking at web sites for a while will go somewhere else. If our site is designed for a 1024x768 screen resolution and someone with a monitor set at 800x600 visits the site they may not be able to use it (this is a large number of people by the way even if they are seen as a smallish percentage in a statistical kind of way).

Remember it is very easy to leave a web site; your sites demise is always just one click away. Try to build a site that is open to as big a number of people as possible. Try not to frustrate those who visit.