My partner and I were looking through a free modernist magazine while we were having breakfast the other morning when a fireplace caught her eye. She asked me to remember the URL so she could visit their website later. The next day she emailed me from work, "What was the URL again?" Which I duly replied to her. The next email from her was, "Their website sucks."

She couldn't find what she wanted and the website went out of its way to make it difficult for her to find the product and information she was interested in.

Most websites are not designed for customers. They are designed for the company, they want people to know who they are, give them a feel for them, all the things they do, etc. Customers literally do not care about that.

If someone goes out of their way enough to remember a URL - which is rare - then they want to know purchase information; how much and how quickly. Consequently the product had better be on the front page. If it isn't, then it better be easy to find, like within one click, and the information the user wants better be right there and then.

It wasn't.

Strike one customer.

The internet is a big place with a lot of competing businesses and if the website is even slightly annoying there are numerous places a potential customer can go.

In my opinion, any company with under twenty products, should put them all on the front page of the website with all the information a user needs to know to buy them. A click or a navigation bar in that instance is a waste of programming and web development time.
Cam Riley: South Sea Republic. Freedom, liberty, equity and an Australian Republic.