FiveTips for a Great Web Site Design
Posted by Martin Wessel on Wed, Aug 18, 2010
As a Web Development Company, we speak to many customers and prospects and everyone has different ideas of what they want for they're site. We've come up with some basic guidelines to help us explain to non-Webheads what they can do with their site:
1. Identify the Message
You may be a multinational corporation or a local donut shop, but you've got something to say on your site. Try to get it down to a single sentence and then build your site around that.
2. Support the Message
Think about your message. Now, ask yourself if the content you're adding to the site supports that message. If you've got a landscaping business, for example, don't add information about trucks unless the truck you use gives you a competitive advantage.
3. Use Pictures
The Web is a visual medium and people will absorb the message in a picture faster than they'll read it. It doesn't matter if you use stock photography or snapshots, as long as the pictures convey part of your overall message. One note of caution about those snapshots, however. You don't want your site to look like a scrapbook, so use them carefully and use the best images you have.
4. Keep it Simple
So you've got a message, content, and pictures and now it's time to show off your hard work. Now it's time to think about how this is going to look. Web 2.0 is a buzzword we've heard many times, and like most buzzwords it means different things to different people. Generally, however, you're going to want a clean, well organized design that puts the emphasis on your content, not the design of the site.
5. Make it Easy
It won't matter if you've got everything else right, but if visitors can't find what they want you may was well not have bothered. Remember tip 1? Are there a few pages that really, really, really supports that message? Hint: it's not your contact page. If not, you'll want to make at least one, if yes than you'll want very obvious links to those pages. Don't ignore you're contact information, however. At the least you should have your main phone number and email address on every page.
Some Other Thoughts
It (almost) goes without saying that you should check all your spelling and grammar. You'll also want to be careful of just how much you're saying on your site. You'll want to answer a visitors first questions but you want them to contact you for more information. Don't give them so much information that they rule you out without ever talking to you.
There you have it, some basic ideas of how to design your web site. We'll be taking a look at how to use color and where to put things in upcoming posts.