I was reading Sharon Jackson’s Blog recently (she recently guest posted an article here “Web Site Design: Should You Do It Yourself Or Go With A Pro?“), where she talked more about web site design considerations – in particular thinking about the customer when planning the design.

In Sharon’s words:

First and foremost, you should be considering not what YOU want but what your CUSTOMER wants and needs.

Size doesn’t necessarily matter so think about whether your customer needs a full list of your products and services or is a rough idea more appropriate? Would your customer be prepared to search through the site for what they want or do they just want to make a quick visit for pertinent information? Would your customer like to have a place where they could give you feedback or leave a message 24/7?

These are excellent considerations and something that is easy to forget, when doing pretty much anything you should always consider the customer, be they a trading partner, a friend, a customer, or the even the kids at home.

You can read Sharon’s full article Q: what do you want from your web site?