Why 'Sunny' — A Clean, Well Lighted Space
We like websites where the light looks like it's pouring in the window. A big room with high ceilings. Comfortable furniture, but no more than necessary. Lots of room to walk around. Inviting. Cheerful.
Why 'Shops' — Not 'Sites'
A website is a public space. So, in a sense, it is a "shop", because a shop is a public space. Even though your website might not be selling anything, it's useful to think of it as a shop. And here's why:
At the core of any web-based endeavor, there are architectural considerations. The very terminology of the web evokes the field of architecture: "web design", "building" a website, the word "site" itself, a "home" page, a "navigation" column.
To stay with the term "website" for a moment – it's so much a part of our vocabulary, we should – and must – accept it now as part of the Queen's English. But consider the word "site": in architectural parlance, a building "site" is the place where the building will go, not the building itself.
So, analogously, a web"site" is only the address of the ultimate building: "yourname.com". The "site" is not the building itself.
Now, let's think of the building we want to put at this address. This is where the word "shop" comes back into the picture – the public space we want to build at the address.
Traffic Lanes
When designing a building that will often be populated by first-time visitors, it is especially critical that the public pathways through the building are broad, inviting, and clearly marked. (Designing a home is a different matter because it will always be populated by people who can find their way around in the dark.)
Inviting and clearly marked traffic lanes are even more important for a website/shop because a visitor is not physically in the space, so if things get confusing or uninviting, with a click of a mouse, the visitor can leave. Good-bye.
The Home Page
All traffic lanes begin at the home page. To think of it in the architecture of a shop, it is your storefront window – that is, in a real sense, it is the part of the shop someone sees and experiences before they enter your shop.
We've all had two experiences, and the two are identical in many ways:
First one – you are visiting a town for the first time and you are walking down a street filled with shops. A storefront catches your eye. It's pleasant. It's intriguing. It's inviting. Its storefront welcomes you in. You enter.
Second one – you are surfing the web, perhaps looking for a particular service or product. A homepage catches your eye. It's pleasant. It's intriguing. It's inviting. Its homepage welcomes you in. You enter.
Storefront Window
It's not as common now, but in the early days of the web, you'd often see sites, especially the "high-brow" "arty" ones, that only had a logo and the word "Enter" on their homepage. That would be like a shop with no window.
A shop needs a window, and the window should have items and information in it that make you want to go in. And if they have boots in the window, they should have a clearly marked way to get to the boots when you enter the store. If they have a sale of coffee advertised in the window, they should have a clearly marked way to get to the coffee when you enter the store.
Not Rocket Science
With this architectural model of the "shop" in our mind, we can proceed to design the structure of the space we will build at our website.
It need not be complicated. It should not be complicated.
Making things simple – and keeping things simple – achieves two important goals – your website is more inviting, and it will be less expensive to build.