In praise of the slow website

WWalk into a good hardware shop and nobody greets you with a pop up. The person at the counter looks up, nods, and lets you find the screws. If you need help, you ask. That is the whole interface, and it has worked for a hundred years.

Most websites of small businesses could learn from that counter. They try to do everything at once, and in trying they forget the two questions every visitor brings. Can you help me, and how do I reach you.

A website should feel like a shop where the lights are on and someone is home.

The slow website answers those two questions on the first screen. It loads before the visitor has finished reaching for their coffee. It says what the business does in a sentence a neighbor would use.

None of this is new. It is just rare, because it asks for restraint, and restraint is hard to sell in a pitch. But the shops that last are the ones that know what to leave out, and their websites can be the same.