Businesses operating on the web should take care not to use internal jargon when developing websites for the public, it has been advised.
Speaking at the Technology for Marketing & Advertising event, Steve Simmonds of Design UK explained that some of his company's clients had discovered that using in-house product categories resulted in consumers being unable to find what they wanted on their websites.
He also went on to note the effect that other website elements, such as banners, can have on user behaviour and what the consumer does and does not click on.
"We had a company where they had a banner at the top, their key product below that and what was happening was that everyone was bypassing it and going straight to the key products," Mr Simmonds explained.
The problem of jargon affecting web design usability is one that applies to business-to-business sites as well as to consumer-facing ones, according to usability guru Jakob Nielsen.
He explained in an Alertbox article in 2006 that even those selling highly technical products to very specialised audiences should not assume that their target customers are able to understand industry jargon.
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