Common Sense in Building a Website

A coherent structure, or in other words, a consistently and logically formed structure is essential in website design for several reasons. One reason is to allow the user to find what they want within an extremely short time frame. The Nielsen Norman Group has found the first ten seconds of a user’s visit to a webpage are the most critical in making a decision whether to leave or stay on the site. (https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-long-do-users-stay-on-web-pages/) Another is it to hold the audience’s attention. Being cognitively attentive is more difficult for some people more than others. Guiding the users eye to direct them through the site, for example from the logo to navigation to the main body in sequence, will establish a pattern for them to subconsciously expect in the subsequent pages as they navigate the site; hence holding their attention. A third reason for consistency is to maintain a professional and clean design with easy navigation and orientation. The World Wide Web is an extremely competitive arena, so the perception of professionalism is unquestionably vital. Discrepancies in design and misspellings within the text lower the quality in the opinion of the professionalism regarding the website.