Bethan's Blog

In this day and age there are so many things companies must excel at, but one of the most important is their website. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="957"] Variety of web pages (Stover, 2016)[/caption] Nowadays, running a business' website is one of the most important facets in the life of a company, as a website can be seen and accessed by almost everyone, and is often the first port of call for consumers to research a company and find out what they do and how they do it (Websitemagazine.com, 2016). Websites are an instrument with which businesses market products or services; they are employed for public relations by political and governmental institutions and organisations; and they are used to educate students, specific target groups, or the broad public in formal and informal settings (Mueller, 2015). Because of this, there are so many aspects to a website that companies must ensure are engaging, intuitive and most importantly, user friendly. For confectionery companies, their websites can be used for advertising, information on their products and communicating with their consumers, therefore all of this must be easily accessible for the consumer.   Here are some tips on how a confectionery company could make their website more user friendly: 1. Content & Readability Content is the most vital part of your website, as this is often what makes consumers stay on your page and continue navigating. Having content that is easy to read, up to date and interactive allows consumers of all ages and abilities to access the information and the correct information at that. - Font for your website must be readable, therefore in a suitable size and colour. - Colour scheme is important as the consumer must be able to easily read all of the information provided. Below is a link that looks at some of the worst website colour schemes there have been... http://designwebkit.com/web-and-trends/color-combinations-hell-death-sentence-designs/ 2. Menus & Navigation When it comes to a confectionery companies website navigation, like any website, the best is always the most simple. This ensures that users of any age and ability are able to reach every page of the website without any difficulty. - The menu and navigation links should be in a prominent place on the website; this is often at the top or left hand side of the website page. - Each of the menu titles should be clear in what you can expect to find on that particular page. Some examples of these are:

• About
• Products/Services
• Contact Us

An example of a confectionery company that does this both well and not so well is Cadbury. They have a clear link to each of their website pages running across the top of their website, however not all of the titles are clear. One is labelled 'Joy Maker' which links to a page where you can customise your own chocolate. However this is not clear and could confuse some consumers. Here is a link for the Cadbury website: https://www.cadbury.co.uk/ - A search bar is always a useful option to have as part of the navigation menu. This allows consumers to search for any particular aspect of the website and be taken directly to that. This eases the consumers experience by avoiding any tedious searching that may result in them leaving the website before finding the information they were looking for. 3. Layout & Visual Appeal Having a clean and clear layout is one of the most important aspects of a successful website, along with the visual appeal such as colour scheme, pictures and text content. Confusing layouts are one of the biggest reasons people turn away from a website as they want to be able to find the information they’re looking for without any hassle (Horton, 2013). One way to increase a website's attractiveness is to have a suitable colour scheme, as mentioned before, for all of the website pages. A great example of this is Kinder's website, which uses their logo and company colours of white a red to separate their website layout and accentuate navigation links and vital text information. The link for this website can be found below: http://www.kinder.co.uk/en/ Also the use of photographs and slides is very beneficial as everyone understands the power of images to promote a brand and quickly convey a message (Official Wix Blog, 2015). 4. Maintenance Keeping your website up to date is probably the most important thing for any company. Particularly with confectionery companies they must keep their product information up to date in terms of what they sell as well as nutritional information. This is crucial due to legislation on displaying specific nutritional details such as calorie, fat and sugar content and any allergens. With confectionery companies, they often display recent news and changes within the company, as well their history and what they have achieved so far as a company. This should be current as it could involve helpful information for both the company such as work with fair trade and charities, and consumers such as competitions where they win prizes and job opportunities to be part of the company. Also the contact details available to consumers must be kept current for two way communication to be possible between the company and their customers. Without this, consumers may feel their queries and opinions aren't valued if they don't receive any responses, and could choose a competitor confectionery company.   Although all of the above may be good advice for setting up a website, due to the fast paced change within digital marketing and technology, there will always be room for improvement for any confectionery company's website. Also new generations are far more tech savvy than older generations, therefore there may always be part of the population who struggle with the internet in general, and may not have the knowledge to navigate any websites even if they are substantially user friendly. Overall, when a website is regarded as highly usable, users unknowingly increase their trust and consequently their loyalty towards that company (Dingli and Cassar, 2014).   References Dingli, A. and Cassar, S. (2014). An Intelligent Framework for Website Usability. Advances in Human-Computer Interaction, 2014, pp.1-13. Horton, M. (2013). 6 Ways to Make Your Website More User-Friendly. [online] Get Busy Media. Available at: http://www.getbusymedia.com/6-ways-to-make-your-website-more-user-friendly/ [Accessed 8 Apr. 2016]. Mueller, C. (2015). Evaluating the Effectiveness of Website Content Features Using Retrospective Pretest Methodology: An Experimental Test. Evaluation Review, 39(3), pp.283-307. Official Wix Blog. (2015). 5 Better Ways to Use Photos on Your Website. Web Design & Small Business Tips to Promote Your Site. [online] Available at: http://www.wix.com/blog/2015/05/5-better-ways-to-use-photos-on-your-website/ [Accessed 8 Apr. 2016]. Stover, S. (2016). Websites and Hosting. [online] Nailingit.com. Available at: http://www.nailingit.com/web.html [Accessed 5 Apr. 2016]. Websitemagazine.com. (2016). 3 Tips to Make Your Website More User-Friendly - 'Net Features - Website Magazine. [online] Available at: http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2014/02/06/3-tips-to-make-your-website-more-user-friendly.aspx [Accessed 4 Apr. 2016].