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In this edition of Web Enlightenment we'll be talking about waiting room chairs and how they impact your image on the web.

This newsletter focuses on giving you practical, interesting insights into how to successfully use technology as a tool to improve the way you do business. Bridging the gap between knowledge and understanding that all entrepreneurs have will help you make money online.

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All the best,

Waiting Room Chairs
...your image on the web

Recently I've been chatting with folks about website design and why it is important.

Your site design is an awful lot like the chairs in a waiting room.

When any of us visit a waiting room we have to sit down (unless you've got a trick knee or something) so we look around for the chairs.

The first thing we do is make sure that the chair is basically functional, I for one look to make sure the legs are not only present but reasonably stout. I'm not saying I've broken huge numbers of chairs in my life, but it has happened more than once. Feel free to insert your favorite guy with a pot belly joke here.

When we make sure the chair is basically OK, that is just like website usability. We've all been to sites that have awful usability, a navigation where it feels like you are lost. It gives people the same nervous feeling an "old creaky going to break any second" chair does.

The next thing folks can do with a chair is send a message - this is especially true of service professionals. There is a big law firm in Augusta that I got to know a bit last year, and they have actual silk fabric on the chairs in their waiting room. This matches rather perfectly with their $450 an hour rates.

Expensive or not some chairs focus on being utilitarian, some focus on being comfortable - and that always sends a subtle message. Your job as an Internet Entrepreneur is to pay attention to what that message is, don't just let it develop on its own.

Since the design of your website sends a subtle message to your visitors - you've got to think about what exactly it is "saying" and whether or not that is in fact the message you want to be sending to customers.

So take some time to think about your website design in the same way you think of the chairs in your waiting room.

First, is it basically OK? Are guys with Pot Bellies going to be afraid to sit down? That's Usability.

Second, what does it really "say" overall ? That's the best way to think about evocative design.

With these two basic concepts in mind you can evaluate your own site with a keen eye, and if the folks you talk to wonder why you keep mumbling about chairs just send them this newsletter.

YouTube Office Tour

As a result of talking about the exotic animal farm I live on in the last issue of this newsletter several folks have inquired about my office and setup.

So I made an office tour and have placed it on youtube - if you'd like to check out where it is that I am , click here to take a peek.