According to Ian Lurie, what you don't know about your customers can lead to ineffective website design and, consequently, lost sales. In a post at the Conversation Marketing blog, he provides 22 insightful points with highlights like these:

Visitors don't want an experience. He discourages dynamic elements that become tiresome when someone just wants to shop. For instance, most customers won't appreciate having to hit "skip intro" every time they visit, or sitting through elaborate zooms or fades when all they want are some close-up shots of a certain product.

"Don't take my word for it," he says. "Look at the web site of one of the [ultimate] design companies: Apple.com. See any special effects?"

They really don't want to log in. This is so significant that Lurie repeats it three times—as items 10, 11 and 12. By all means offer them the option of creating an account at the end of the checkout process, he says, but remember, "They don't even want a tiny hint or implication that at some point in the future they might have to log in."

They're not afraid to scroll. Don't worry about the length of your pages. Says Lurie: "You don't have to make a home page, or any other page of your web site, fit in a single window. Long pages are OK!"

They still use Internet Explorer. In fact, over 60 percent of Lurie's visitors use IE, compared to 20 percent who use Firefox and 15 percent who prefer Safari. "Not everyone understands that Firefox is the Risen Savior just yet," he says. "Design, develop and plan accordingly."

The Po!nt: Don't design—or redesign—your website unless you know what your customers want and expect.

Source: Conversation Marketing. Click here for the full post.

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