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Website Design
How to Tell Your Story in 10 Seconds (and how not to!)

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When online, you don’t have all the time in the
world to tell someone who you are, what you do
and why they should be interested in you. People
have a very short attention span and it is important
that you act on this advice to improve your
conversion from the website.

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Brace Yourself
Microsoft published a research study highlighting
that you have 10 seconds at your disposal to grab
your visitors attention, but to be honest, if you
were a visitor, you wouldn’t take more than 5-6
seconds to decide whether to leave a website or
browse it further. Others are no exception. So
now it’s more about telling your story in less than
10 seconds.

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Be Attention Hungry
Think of yourself as a 6-year old boy suffering from
ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). You would crave
for attention, right? Your website design should
reflect that, period. Use enticing visuals, colour
schemes that catch the visitors’ fancy and anything
and everything that helps you tell your story. But
again, the visitors want to know more about you,
your business and for this, you need an attentiongrabbing sentence. Call it a tagline, if you may, but
make sure you include it in the design.

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Dos and Don’ts
 Dos
 Do Your Homework
It’s your website. You need to find out who your target
audience is. This is the most important consideration you
should have when designing your website. Understand what
your target audience wants and how they feel. Then design
the website in such a way that it enhances the visitor
experience. The visitor should be like “Wow. They know what I
want to find out, why I am here.’You do feel that you should
speak to every visitor, but the idea looks good on paper unless
you are willing to go that extra mile – to find a way and
actually communicate.

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 Do Create A Lasting Impression (The Very First Time!)
• If face is the index of mind, then home page
is the index of your website, simple. Design
an impressive website that had a good recall
value. Here’s how to go about it:
• Highlight yourself or rather your expertise
o Remember, you have less than 10 seconds
o Customer reviews or testimonials can prove to be
beneficial
o Ensure that the visitors know what they’d miss
on if they don’t buy your products or services

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• Keep it simple, stupid! (KISS)Try including long
sentences and watch the visitors go away
o If you think they may have some questions in mind, answer them
proactively
o Let the visitors use your design to their advantage
• Must be able to easily navigate to supportive
information
• Make the most of list building
o Devise a relevant strategy
o Implement it wherever possible, homepage included

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• Give some space to social media
o Mention about the social media channels on your
homepage
o You may also incorporate a widget, if the need be
• Don’t consider SEO dead
o It is pretty much alive
o Do optimise the content on your homepage
• A picture is worth a thousand words
o Do not include too many images though
o Give the visitors a reason to engage with your business
• Also focus on blog posts and articles
o If you update them regularly, cash in on them
o These give a better idea of who you are

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 Do Strike a Balance
While designing the site, give equal weightage to
ads and content (if majority of your revenue is
generated through ads – for a serious business
website, ads are a no no). If the visitors are listening
(read: reading) to what you have to say, they won’t
wait for the ads to load, despite the fact that to you,
advertisements = money. Yes, you can’t do without
them, but don’t make them a priority.

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 Do Include the Key Information
Let’s say you offer flowers, balloons and candles and
also make arrangements for venue decoration.
Would you only want your visitors to know that you
offer balloons? Shouldn’t they know that you are
also a service provider? More importantly, if you
offer international shipping, shouldn’t they be
informed of this in those 10 seconds that they are
likely to be on your site for? Think about it – they
may be based elsewhere. If they don’t know you can
indeed ship over the order to their area, would they
even think for a second before closing the browser?

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 Do Give Attention to Detail
We offer the
best services
We let you send
message online
One – Stop
destination

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 Do Think Of the Alignment
Ever visited a site that seemed to be going left for no
apparent reason? What were they trying to do?
Make you read an essay or something? Well, you are
smart; don’t do what they did. Place or align the text
centrally. See, it’s simple – you have 10 seconds –
you can either make the visitors wonder what’s
wrong with your site or encourage them to read
what’s written. The ball is in your court.

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 Do Use Simple Language
You are telling your story to laymen. For them, technical jargon
would mean that you are making fun of them. Should they
really need to use Google or a dictionary for that matter for
every other word mentioned on your site? You know the
answer.
 Do Respect the Visitors
They have come to your website and wish to know what you
have in store for them. You want to take them to a page that
has a big ad on it? Forget about the 10-second rule, they won’t
be there even for a single moment. Be careful. Interstitials are
not a great way of showing disrespect to your visitors. Popups,
even one, can be a big turn-off.

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 Do Leave Some Scent Trails
If you do manage to catch the visitors’ fancy, they may be
interested in obtaining more information. But how would they
come to know where to find it? You need to tell them. It goes
without saying that they should be able to access the
information with ease.
 Do Stick To Originality
Imagine, if the visitors spend 5 out of 10 seconds thinking that
they have seen a similar website elsewhere, what kind of an
impression that would create? Create a design that’s unique
and only then the visitors would be interested in your story.
Else, they would simply compare, even if they don’t want to –
that’s what all humans do.

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 Do Update the Blog
Yes, a mention of your blog posts is a must, but only when you
actually update the section. Say, if someone visits the section
and finds a blog that dates back to January 2010, chances are
that they would rather visit another website.
 Do Take the Browser Issues into Account
The visitors are likely to use diverse range of browsers (and
their versions) as most of them are available for free. But then,
is your website fit for all the options available? Can you handle
the issues, if any? Do stringent testing to ensure that the
visitors are able to open your site first, leave alone reading
your story.

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Dos and Don’ts
 Don’ts
 Don’t Be Biased
If the homepage is your blue-eyed boy, you are yet to
get a hang of what an effective web design is. That said,
every page of your website is equally important – treat
all of them at par. Design every page with the 10-second
window in mind. Put a tagline on every page, if possible.
Other things of importance:
o Call to action
o Downloads, wherever complex content is involved

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 Don’t Act Cheap
Just because you don’t have enough time to tell the visitors
who you are, doesn’t mean you should resort to something as
cheap as pagination. Don’t. Yes, it may increase the page
impressions, but then, the visitors won’t think highly of you if
they need to load 10 different pages.
 Don’t Restrict Yourself
It’s all about telling your story, remember? Well, you can’t
assume that only desktop users may be interested in knowing
who you are and what you do. There may be some
smartphone & tablet users who are all ears. Speak to them.
But does that mean you need a mobile version of your
website? Not really. You can benefit from what they call a
responsive web design.

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 Don’t Be Desperate
Yes, in the end, you want just one thing – conversion. However,
if you are introducing yourself, you can’t really tell the visitors
that you don’t give two hoots about who they are and what
they are looking for. If you are desperate, only you should
know it, don’t make it obvious.
 Don’t Annoy the Visitors
Flashy banners are big no-no. So is auto-sound. The visitors
aren’t attending some rock concert. They don’t want to be
bombarded with unwanted, unpleasant graphics and sound.
They can read. Let them. Even if you incorporate some of the
videos in the design, make sure they do not play on their own.
Give the visitors the choice to decide whether they want to
watch the videos or not.

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