The fundamental principle of online media, user-centred design forms the foundation of international web standards. While the principles involved may seem like common sense – misunderstanding your user requirements will directly influence your sales, turnaround, visitor rates and bottom line.

So, what are these mysterious principles?

Their influence is everywhere – covering visual elements, navigation tools, site architecture, search optimisation (both internal and external), your choice of Content Management System, copy size, font, colour, composition – the list goes on … making an uninformed or arbitrary choice about any of these is a mistake – pure and simple.

Fortunately with the right approach it’s pretty simple to apply user-centred design principles when developing your online solution. There are three basic factors involved.

1. Audience

Understanding your market is not the same as understanding your audience. There’s a fundamental difference which almost everyone ignores. That is: your audience is right there, listening to you. Your market may or may not even know you exist.

Let’s take an example: the sales squeeze page. Your Audience, here, is different to the audience for your landing page (which is, hopefully, everyone). You need to talk to them in a very different tone that you might take with someone casually inquiring about your business. If they have made it as far as the squeeze page then you can be assured of a couple of things, crucially, they know what it is your offering, and are curious enough to consider a purchase. Your audience here are people who want what you’re offering (and let’s face it, if they don’t want what you’re offering then you probably don’t need them to read your sales pitch).

2. Purpose

The point here is that every unique page within your site has a different audience and therefore a different set of user requirements. Your sales page has a function unlike your landing page, or your blog, or your staff profile. So you structure, design and write that particular page according to the audience needs. By the time they arrive, they’re probably to buy, so it’s probably not a good idea to have any other button on your sales page other than ‘Buy Now’. Whereas your landing page should almost certainly have clear navigation buttons leading everywhere – because your audience there is at its most diverse.

3. Context

With all that in mind, unfortunately it doesn’t matter what your purpose is. As much as you hate to hear it, your success or failure depends on understanding what your audience is trying to achieve. You want to make a sale – but your audience’s purpose is to solve a problem. The two are subtly different but also one and the same.Understanding this common ground is all about Context.

These three factors are deceptively simple, but they apply to every decision that needs to be made about your site. Websites can be hit and miss if they aren’t thought out, but careful planning means tight turnaround and a winning result, every time.