Eyeball Candy Websites

We’re working on a lot of websites at the moment.

When I think of websites, I think of a seminar I went to given by Amy Africa, an authority on how people use the internet. Go take a look at her website and when you come back, I’ll make my point.
http://www.eightbyeight.com/

My point.
You probably think her website is butt-ugly. But I’m telling you, Amy Africa knows more about building websites that generate business then I will ever know (and I’m pretty good). She uses all the tricks she’s learned doing research on how people surf, purchase and interact with anything on the web. This is a website that generates response!

Using the Rosen Velocity Scale -- http://www.rgrosen.com/velocity.html ,
I would rate Ms. Africa’s site at an 8 or 9.
That’s because the site is totally focused on visitor interaction.
When I tell our interactive and web designers to go to Ms. Africa’s website; they all moan and cry about its lack of beauty and failure of design. They are missing the point.

The secret to a customer interactive site is Eyeball Candy!
Ms. Africa has eyeball candy piled up all over her site. Your eyes go from tidbit to tidbit. Offer to offer. She knows that the reds and blues and orange are the best colors for a website.
The secret to improving your website is not to copy the Africa look. Though I would say that you couldn’t go wrong if that’s what you did.
The trick is to incorporate eyeball candy technique into your site wherever possible.

One trick to create your eyeball candy is to make a list of every key fact, offer, benefit and feature you want the site to deliver on the home page. With this list you create individual pieces (eyeball candy) that show a visual, headline and a short punchy copy lead that draws to eye to it. Each one of these candies allows you to click deeper into the site to find out more. You might have three different eyeball candies that all click to the same inside page, each one leveraging a different feature/benefit.

Go take a look at this site:
www.PetFoodDirect.com

I designed this site 10 years ago. It’s an eyeball candy site. I think Amy Africa would be very pleased with it. The homepage consistently converts visitors into orders better than anything that has been tested against it. That’s because the homepage delivers everything it can to pay-off the anticipated needs of the visitor. It then draws the visitor into the site to capture the orders.
If I could redesign this site based on what I know today, I would do a better job of brand delivery, but the eyeball candy style would remain and continue to draw visitors in.

Eyeball candy design need not be ugly. Done correctly, it can be dramatic and award winning design. If your website is to be judged on clicks, sign-ups and/or orders…eyeball candy works!

Jon