Savvy
–verb
1. to know; understand.
–noun
2. Also, sav•vi•ness. practical understanding; shrewdness or intelligence; common sense: a candidate who seemed to have no political savvy.
–adjective
3. shrewdly informed; experienced and well-informed; canny.

2010 web users are on point…so don’t spell it out
Yes these people can think. Savvy. Web users of 2010 are switched on and are getting savvier by the day. Old tricks like writing “click here” are actually more likely to have a detrimental effect rather than force an action from the 2010 web user. The user of 2010 is comparable to a racehorse that performs brilliantly when you dangle a carrot in front of it (or an apple with an orange on the inside) but as soon as you bring the whip out the beast refuses to budge!

Nowadays more people arrive at your site through pages other than your homepage. These pages are known as inner pages and contain the real goodness people are after. One of the main reasons web users are arriving through the back door (and side doors!) is because your mass audience is becoming savvier with their searches.

Savvy users are searching more “specifically”
For instance instead of typing in “William Blake House” as the key term, the user might type in “Volunteers William Blake House” (or “William Blake House Volunteers”) and will therefore arrive at the specific volunteers page they were after and will also arrive there in the shortest possible time! (Cutting out the middle man, aka Mr Homepage). The bottom line is web users are maturing like a fine wine and therefore their searches are becoming more refined and specific.

Dedicate time to your inner page
Historically inner pages haven’t been given the same level of time or thought as a homepage and often for a designer it would be a case of simply producing one inner page design which would serve as a template for the rest of the inner pages. “This works perfectly” the lethargic design would cry “It gives real consistency to the rest of the site”…Consistency is a valid point but it doesn’t mean every page has to look exactly the same (I’ll touch more about this point later). Often it can be the case that your most popular page is something other than your homepage.

Put the whip away. As I mentioned earlier users are becoming tired of being shouted at, told what to do and generally being treated like small child. The audience of 2010 is switched on and will even go as far as to avoid the homepage if they see it more as a billboard than as a useful resource.

Flexible and unique inner pages
As mentioned earlier I still believe we can achieve consistency in our designs whilst still making them unique. Some of the most engaging websites I have seen have gone as far as having a completely unique design for each page to the extent where you’d think the pages were from different sites! Brand identities nowadays are more flexible anyway…although this does depend upon the flexibility of your client and their brand.

Why not design the most important page first?
Here’s a thought…it might even be worth considering designing your most important inner page first rather than your homepage. One key point I will stress however is to avoid turning your homepage into a billboard. Keep the page as clean and simple as possible and try to channel more energy into a unique inner page(s) which will convert.

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