Hi,
I think this is a great article on web design. I am a true believer in “web design 101” In other word keep the site simple so your visitors can find what they want quickly, spend their money and be gone. If you want to show the world how clever you are give your visitors the option to click to see your flashes, videos, etc. If you don’t and they have to suffer through things when they are in a hurry they will leave but without buying!
My 2 cents.
Bill
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7 Basics of Good Web Design
By George Peirson (c) 2009
Whether you are just starting a web design project, looking at
revamping an existing site, or just wanting to double check the
usability of your current web site you should consider these 7
Basics of Good Web Design.
These basics are aimed at new visitors/customers; your repeat
customers will be judging your web site on different values.
Just like wearing the appropriate clothes for a job interview,
these basics will help you pick out the “look” of your web site
so that you make a good first impression.
1. Fast Loading Web Site � Any way you look at it, a fast
loading page should be your number 1 concern. The web is all
about speed, fast searches, fast purchases, fast information.
You can’t have any of that with a slow loading page. Ask
yourself this question – have you ever been on Google doing a
search for something important and a link you clicked on didn’t
open up immediately? What did you do? Patiently wait for the
page to open or move onto the next link on the list? My favorite
sites open almost immediately.
So, a few suggestions: Make sure that your images are properly
optimized. Don’t use very many large images, save those for a
different page. Keep any auto-running multimedia to a minimum,
offer links to run media instead. Check your code for anything
else that could affect your page loading times. Since text loads
almost instantly go ahead and use all the text you want, just
keep everything else under control.
2. No Meaningless Splash Page � Do you appreciate a fancy
animation page that doesn’t tell you anything and you have to
wait for before the web site will open? Neither do I. The last
thing I want once I find an interesting site is to wait through
some animation before getting to the first page. This doesn’t
mean that I don’t want multimedia on a site, I do. I just don’t
want an animation before the first page that forces me to wait
for it to finish before getting onto the site. It’s like having
to wait for a salesperson to finish their memorized speech
before you can ask them a question. No thanks! I like animation,
just in the right place and at the right time. Plus, if I am a
returning customer, I will have already seen that animation and
don’t need to see it again.
My recommendation is to use a smaller animation contained in
your main landing page which also includes your main message and
links to the rest of your site. It will make for a faster
loading page (smaller file) and your visitors can go ahead with
accessing your site without having to wait for the animation to
finish.
One final note, never, ever put your logo as the only content
on your landing page with a link that says “Enter Site”. This
just screams Unprofessional and will drive away potential
visitors in droves. The last thing I want to do is to click on
another link just to get into the site. This is a total waste of
my time. I usually will skip a site if I see this.
3. No Annoying Web Gimmicks � Now that you have your visitor on
your site quickly the one thing you don’t want to do is to drive
them away just as quickly. So, don’t put anything annoying on
that first page. No loud background music that makes them
quickly hit the volume control or the back button on their
browser. No flashing animations while they are trying to read
your content. No popup, flyout, expanding ads that cover your
home page. Basically, leave the gimmicks alone until you are sure
that your visitor will stay on your site. Most casual visitors
will leave your site in just a few seconds, no sense on driving
them away more quickly.
Multimedia is great on a web site, just don’t bombard your
visitor with it first thing. If you want audio, then put in a
nice picture with a link, like a picture of yourself with text
saying something like “Let me tell you how to make $50,000 this
month!” If they are interested, they will click on the link and
listen to your message; if they are not interested in audio, then
you should be using a different pitch anyway.
Also, monitor what advertisers are putting on your site if you
sell ad space. I am sure you have seen those ads with the
animated dancing figure, cute the first time you see it. But
after seeing it 10,000 times with every imaginable character I
have added the company to a list I keep of companies I will
never do business with. So their animation has gone from “look
at me” to “you annoy me” in my mind. Ads like these will impact
your visitor’s experience. So even if your site is perfectly
designed, one misplaced ad can ruin all of your hard work.
4. Have a Clear Message � Too many web sites are a mish-mash of
content. This is especially true of blog pages. Certain types of
sites lend themselves to stream of consciousness content, but
most don’t. Make it easy for your viewer to understand what your
web site is about, don’t make them guess. Have a clear topic
headline, followed by clear and concise text. This is also where
a picture is worth a thousand words, but only if the picture
directly pertains to your message.
You want your visitor to quickly understand what your message
is. If they like your message, they will take the time to read
the rest of your page and look around your web site. If they
don’t like your page, then it won’t do you any good having them
stay on your site anyway. So, don’t make your visitors guess,
let them know what you are about quickly and cleanly and you
will have happy visitors. And when thinking about a sales page,
a happy customer is a buying customer.
5. Coordinated Design � This one should be self evident, but it
is surprising how many sites change their design for every page.
You want your visitor to be comfortable in your site and one way
to achieve that is by having a coordinated web design. Having a
consistent logo, using a consistent color scheme, keeping your
navigation in the same place. All of these help to create a
coordinated design. This does not mean that you can’t change
colors or the “Look” on different segments of your site, but if
you do, the changes should not be so drastic that it feels like
you have moved on to a different site.
If you select one place for your logo, one place for your
navigation, one look for your buttons or other common graphic
elements and stick with those then you will be well on your way
to a coordinated design. If you change colors for a different
section, but keep the same logo location, the same navigation
location, the same button shape, then your visitors will not
become lost as they move from page to page.
6. Easy Navigation � Once you have grabbed your visitors
attention you want them to be able to easily move around the
different areas of your web site. This is done with easy to use
navigation. There are three standard, accepted locations for
navigation elements on a web page: along the top, on the left
side, and at the bottom. I will usually put my main navigation
either along the top or along the left side. I will then put
text based navigation at the bottom of the page, this text based
navigation is more for the search engines than anything else,
but it also makes it easy for your visitors to move to the next
page when they have reached the bottom of the current page.
Most people start reading a page from the top left and then
read towards the bottom right. So navigation at the left or top
will be seen as soon as someone enters your page. Also
navigation at the left or top will not move or change position
if the browser window is adjusted in size. The worst thing you
can do is to put your main navigation on the right side of the
page and have your page set for a large screen size. Let’s say
that your page is set for 1024 across with the navigation on the
right, and someone views your page at 800 across, they will not
see your navigation at all. The left side of your page will show
perfectly, but the right side will be hidden outside of their
viewing area. Of course by using floating or popup menus you can
overcome some of these design limitations and keep your
navigation visible at all times.
Unless you know that your audience will enjoy it, don’t use
Mystery Navigation. This is where your navigation is hidden
within images, or spaced around the web page in some mysterious
random order. This can be fun on gaming sites, or social
networking sites, but in most cases the navigation should be
easy to see and easy to use. If you do want to use Mystery
Navigation, I would recommend keeping the text based navigation
at the bottom of the page, just in case.
7. Have a “Complete” web site � And finally, no one wants to go
to a web site only to find that the site is “Under Construction”
and the content they are looking for is not there. These are
words that you should never use. If a section of your web site
is not ready for prime time yet, then simply don’t show it yet.
It is better to have your site look complete and professional,
then to have it look like a work in progress that should not be
up on the web yet.
You can easily tell your visitors that you will be having more
content in the future without having your site look like it is
unfinished. Just use phrases like “Content Updated Weekly” or
“New Products Added Monthly”. Both of these will tell your
visitors that it would be worth their time to come back and
visit later, but neither one will make your site look
unfinished. So no matter how small your web site is, give the
impression that you have taken the time to complete the site
before putting it up on the internet, this makes for a more
professional presentation and a better visitor experience.
In Closing � By following these simple 7 Basics of Good Web
Design you will be well on your way to having an easy to use and
successful web presence. Just keep in mind what you look for
when you first land on a web page after doing a web search in
Google or Yahoo, or other search engine. If you want fast
loading pages, make sure your pages load fast. If you want to be
able to find what you are looking for quickly and easily, then
make sure you have easy navigation. Just keep your first time
visitor in mind, put yourself in their web shoes and make your
web site an enjoyable place to visit and success should follow.
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George Peirson is a successful Entrepreneur and Internet Trainer.
He is the author of over 40 multimedia based tutorial training
titles covering such topics as Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver.
To see his training sets visit http://www.howtogurus.com
Article copyright 2009 George Peirson
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