Specifically, picture yourself in your favorite seat in this restaurant.

You choose your favorite dish from the menu.

Now, how quickly does it arrive at your table? Is it cooked properly? Is the waiting staff friendly or surly? Are your knife and fork clean? Is the wine to your satisfaction?

These are all questions that you will, probably entirely unconsciously, address whilst sitting in the restaurant. It is all part of the great 'experience' that make you eturn to that restaurant again and again.

Now, transfer those questions to your site, and think about the total experience. Are all the small detai

Websites designed to tell the world that the site owner actually existed, and probably little more.

Going back less than twenty years, to a time when the internet as we know it was nothing more than a seemingly insane dream, websites were most often created with very little thought given as to what they were actually supposed to do.

And, you know what?

That is still how the vast majority of sites are created!

Most websites suck - sorry to say that, but it is true, and I am willing to bet that, if you have your own site, that yours might be amongst this group of ‘suckers’!

See if you recognize yourself in this picture. I know that I do!

You set out to create your own site, so you work on it for days, maybe even weeks and finally comes the big day, and you publish the site. You are one happy bunny!

But, a few days later you come back to it and take another look and you are not so happy.

Still later you are less happy, and, very, very soon, you hate the darned sight of it!

You know why this happens?

Because your baby was ugly in the first place, but you just became blinded to that fact by parental love! You made the fatal error of falling in love with your product, and you lost sight of what that product was supposed to do.

The truth is that most web sites are just not up to snuff, even those created by experienced and highly-paid web designers. They're often hard to navigate or badly organized, over-designed, under-designed, incomplete, baffling or simply don't give us what we want.

Now, forgive me for pointing out the obvious here, but the consumer (me or you) should be comfortable and relaxed using a web site.

It should be an easy and pleasant experience, just like eating a nice meal in your favorite restaurant.

All web sites are created with love, but it is like a kind of ‘puppy’ love that very quickly fades. All that is left behind is the grim reality of the site that you are stuck with!

I believe, however, that your aim when creating a website should be to make it genuinely long term lovable. It should be a site that you can visit again in 6 months, 12 months, or three years, and know that it is still easy, rewarding and pleasurable to use.

Now, think of any website you have recently visited, your own included.

Was that a pleasant experience? Was it, for example, like enjoying a favorite meal in the restaurant where you always have your most enjoyable experiences?

Specifically, picture yourself in your favorite seat in this restaurant.

You choose your favorite dish from the menu.

Now, how quickly does it arrive at your table? Is it cooked properly? Is the waiting staff friendly or surly? Are your knife and fork clean? Is the wine to your satisfaction?

These are all questions that you will, probably entirely unconsciously, address whilst sitting in the restaurant. It is all part of the great 'experience' that make you eturn to that restaurant again and again.

Now, transfer those questions to your site, and think about the total experience. Are all the small detail

See if you recognize yourself in this picture. I know that I do!

You set out to create your own site, so you work on it for days, maybe even weeks and finally comes the big day, and you publish the site. You are one happy bunny!

But, a few days later you come back to it and take another look and you are not so happy.

Still later you are less happy, and, very, very soon, you hate the darned sight of it!

You know why this happens?

Because your baby was ugly in the first place, but you just became blinded to that fact by parental love! You made the fatal error of falling in love with your product, and you lost sight of what that product was supposed to do.

The truth is that most web sites are just not up to snuff, even those created by experienced and highly-paid web designers. They're often hard to navigate or badly organized, over-designed, under-designed, incomplete, baffling or simply don't give us what we want.

Now, forgive me for pointing out the obvious here, but the consumer (me or you) should be comfortable and relaxed using a web site.

It should be an easy and pleasant experience, just like eating a nice meal in your favorite restaurant.

All web sites are created with love, but it is like a kind of ‘puppy’ love that very quickly fades. All that is left behind is the grim reality of the site that you are stuck with!

I believe, however, that your aim when creating a website should be to make it genuinely long term lovable. It should be a site that you can visit again in 6 months, 12 months, or three years, and know that it is still easy, rewarding and pleasurable to use.

Now, think of any website you have recently visited, your own included.

Was that a pleasant experience? Was it, for example, like enjoying a favorite meal in the restaurant where you always have your most enjoyable experiences?

Specifically, picture yourself in your favorite seat in this restaurant.

You choose your favorite dish from the menu.

Now, how quickly does it arrive at your table? Is it cooked properly? Is the waiting staff friendly or surly? Are your knife and fork clean? Is the wine to your satisfaction?

These are all questions that you will, probably entirely unconsciously, address whilst sitting in the restaurant. It is all part of the great 'experience' that make you eturn to that restaurant again and again.

Now, transfer those questions to your site, and think about the total experience. Are all the small detai

The truth is that most web sites are just not up to snuff, even those created by experienced and highly-paid web designers. They're often hard to navigate or badly organized, over-designed, under-designed, incomplete, baffling or simply don't give us what we want.

Now, forgive me for pointing out the obvious here, but the consumer (me or you) should be comfortable and relaxed using a web site.

It should be an easy and pleasant experience, just like eating a nice meal in your favorite restaurant.

All web sites are created with love, but it is like a kind of ‘puppy’ love that very quickly fades. All that is left behind is the grim reality of the site that you are stuck with!

I believe, however, that your aim when creating a website should be to make it genuinely long term lovable. It should be a site that you can visit again in 6 months, 12 months, or three years, and know that it is still easy, rewarding and pleasurable to use.

Now, think of any website you have recently visited, your own included.

Was that a pleasant experience? Was it, for example, like enjoying a favorite meal in the restaurant where you always have your most enjoyable experiences?

Specifically, picture yourself in your favorite seat in this restaurant.

You choose your favorite dish from the menu.

Now, how quickly does it arrive at your table? Is it cooked properly? Is the waiting staff friendly or surly? Are your knife and fork clean? Is the wine to your satisfaction?

These are all questions that you will, probably entirely unconsciously, address whilst sitting in the restaurant. It is all part of the great 'experience' that make you eturn to that restaurant again and again.

Now, transfer those questions to your site, and think about the total experience. Are all the small detai

I believe, however, that your aim when creating a website should be to make it genuinely long term lovable. It should be a site that you can visit again in 6 months, 12 months, or three years, and know that it is still easy, rewarding and pleasurable to use.

Now, think of any website you have recently visited, your own included.

Was that a pleasant experience? Was it, for example, like enjoying a favorite meal in the restaurant where you always have your most enjoyable experiences?

Specifically, picture yourself in your favorite seat in this restaurant.

You choose your favorite dish from the menu.

Now, how quickly does it arrive at your table? Is it cooked properly? Is the waiting staff friendly or surly? Are your knife and fork clean? Is the wine to your satisfaction?

These are all questions that you will, probably entirely unconsciously, address whilst sitting in the restaurant. It is all part of the great 'experience' that make you eturn to that restaurant again and again.

Now, transfer those questions to your site, and think about the total experience. Are all the small detai

Specifically, picture yourself in your favorite seat in this restaurant.

You choose your favorite dish from the menu.

Now, how quickly does it arrive at your table? Is it cooked properly? Is the waiting staff friendly or surly? Are your knife and fork clean? Is the wine to your satisfaction?

These are all questions that you will, probably entirely unconsciously, address whilst sitting in the restaurant. It is all part of the great 'experience' that make you eturn to that restaurant again and again.

Now, transfer those questions to your site, and think about the total experience. Are all the small details in place that, added together, makes it a great site to visit?

Is the site 'cooked' properly? Are your virtual knife and fork clean?

If not, you need to ask yourself why?

And, perhaps more importantly, what do you plan to do about it?

I’ll come back with a heap of ideas and suggestions to try to help answer this question in the second part of this article.