The key to good web design
The objective of any reputable, proficient
web designer is to create an aesthetically pleasing,
easily accessible and navigable website which has
the clients best business interests included from
the start of the project. The web site should convey
trust; it should inform the website user that the
webmaster is trustworthy and that the website can
be used safely, therefore the website will convince
the visitor to either; register with the site and
make a purchase if the site is ecommerce enabled and/or
make an enquiry if the website is offering a service.
A good web design is easy to achieve
- if you choose the correct web designer. The web
designer you choose should be able to demonstrate
good graphic design capabilities, be able to create
instinctive site navigation by developing the site
with the user in mind and be able to optimise the
website for good initial search engine results as
part of the design. This can be achieved through developing
a clear logical site layout, site structure and a
clear internal linking strategy. The following suggestions
offer some precious web design guidelines.
Site Navigation
Prepare your site navigation before
designing the site, a clean-cut and uniform navigation
system is a must to prevent cluttering up the site
with forgotten links. Site navigation should be well
thought out, as well as being simple and intuitive;
this is quite often overlooked by website designers.
Remember the three click rule: Research has shown
if a visitor cannot access the information they want
within three clicks, they will leave the site. Every
area of your website should be reachable within three
clicks from anywhere else on the site. If you use
anything other than simple text links, make sure to
test your navigation in all the major browsers.
Maintain a site map to help people and
Search Engines robots (SE's) find, and index in the
case of SE's, what they are looking for with ease.
It is worth while remembering that navigation should
be flexible enough to accommodate additional links
in case you will be adding pages periodically. Link
Check: Test all site links and navigation to be certain
that they are valid. Nothing chases a visitor off
faster than broken links. Be sure to specify link
colors otherwise the user's browser defaults will
determine what color the links are which can make
them unreadable.
Use keyword 'anchor text' for your links,
this will help you with site optimisation, I also
recommend using absolute links; (<a href="http://www.domain.com/pagename.html"></a>,
As opposed to relative links; (<a href="pagename.html"></a>).
Cross Browser Compatibility There are
many variants of browsers in use, and of these browsers
there are many different versions being used, many
users do not necessary take the time to upgrade to
the latest versions. A good website will be required
to render properly in all. Your website won't be much
use if it works well in Internet Explorer but is all
over the place when viewed in firefox! It is also
worth while remembering that the user may well be
using a MAC, a Linux, a PDA and a mobile phone as
well as the good old PC.As a guide you will need your
website to work, and work well in;. Microsoft Internet
Explorer (all versions). Netscape. Firefox. Opera
. Safari
Web Standards Compliant
In order for you website to reach its
full potential, the most fundamental web technologies
must be compatible with one another and allow any
hardware and software used to access the website to
work together. When a web site or web page is described
as complying with web standards, it usually means
that the site or page has valid or nearly valid HTML,
CSS and JavaScript. The HTML should also meet accessibility
guidelines.
Web Images
Remember the three click rule I mentioned?
There is also the 10 second rule; Web surfers are
increasingly intolerant of delays and research has
show that most people will click away if a webpage
takes longer than 10 seconds to load. Your websites
images should be optimised i.e. their file sizes should
be compressed as small in size as possible, without
sacrificing picture quality. Your images should also
be optimised to for keywords, the ALT tag should be
used so people with graphics turned off and those
using hand held devices know what the image is supposed
to be, i.e. name your logo 'logo'!
Frames
Avoid using frames, frames can easily
confuse readers who wish to print material on a page
or bookmark a page for later reference or navigate
using the browser's "Forward" and "Back"
buttons. Screen space also becomes an issue with frames;
if you use frames to divide the browser screen, you
will force many readers to scroll both horizontally
and vertically to see the full contents of each frame.
The current consensus among Web design and usability
experts is that frames should be used only in the
rare instances when their limited advantages clearly
outweigh the many problems they can cause.
Web Content
Content is king! Not just plenty of
it mind, your content needs to be informative and
keyword rich. You want the visitor to see you as a
valuable information resource. People use the internet
to find information. Whether you are selling a product
or service you must provide valuable information to
the visitor or they will click away and find a website
that gives them what they what they want. Good content
within your site will help your page rank, search
engine placement and inbound links - if you a proven
to proved good quality content , the likelihood is
other sites will want to link to yours.
Summary
Good Web design is a combination of
common sense, good website structure and internal
linking, oh and a good designer is a must. Your site
should be attractive and easy to use and most importantly,
your website should provide a simple and easy navigational
system to aid the user's experience.
