Saturday, December 8, 2012

How to Design a Quality Web Site


There are some very important aspects to designing a web site. We have all visited sites that just looked questionable as soon as the home page loaded. Maybe it's the color scheme or all the flashy lights or even glaring spelling errors that we notice first. But all of these not only take away from the quality of the site they also take away from the legitimacy of the site. Most of us are very leery about things like making purchases on sites such as these. There are some web design elements that make a site look appealing, legitimate and trustworthy.

Color Scheme

The colors which are chosen say a lot about your site. It is important to use enough color to be appealing but using too many or the wrong combinations can be repulsive. Some colors just should not be used together - ever! But many can be very complimentary of one another and make for a stellar design. One rule of thumb is to just choose two colors and do not use any other colors with them. Any more than two colors can be overwhelming to the site visitor. A light green and tan is complimentary of one another. It is okay to use neutral colors like black and white with the two chosen colors. This line of thinking is similar to when you are designing your company logo. Just a couple of key colors and some neutrals mixed in. It is also important to note that colors can evoke specific emotions. Red can evoke anger or frustration whereas Yellow can be energizing. Choosing your colors can mean the difference between a successful site and one which fails.

Navigation

Other than the actual layout and visual appeal of the site, navigation is perhaps the most important element. If a site visitor cannot navigate to the resources on the site then they will become frustrated and leave before making a purchase or reading your content. Navigation should be set up to minimize frustration for visitors. It should be easy to get from page to page, a back button should always take the visitor "back" to the previous page, and there should be a home button so the visitor can return to "start" at any time. There should not be a lot of guesswork for users, they should be able to find what they need and get to it easily.

Limit Attention Getters

One of the most annoying things for visitors is a lot of flashy banners and such. The intent of course is to get the visitor's attention which works; but is not beneficial. They do get a lot of attention but they can actually have the opposite effect. Flashing images and moving banners can distract from the actual content or purpose of the site. It is much better to create a simple, but attractive site free from distractions.

Get to the Point

Designing a site is like creating a business plan. The web master should sit down and write out the purpose of the site and what he hopes to accomplish through setting it up. Everything on the site should be geared to this purpose. If the site is dispelling information, it should be easy to get to and easy to read. If it is selling products then the products should be accessible and easy to find, purchase and order. Visitors should not have to guess what the purpose of the site is, it should be apparent.

Designing a web site can be somewhat complicated. But the website should not be complicated. The basic rule of thumb is to cover what needs to be covered, but keep it simple.

Top Seven Tips for Choosing a Professional Web Designer   Don't Exclude   Does Your Website Seek To Impress?   Proper Website Design Can Really Improve Your Leads   Choosing a Website for You: For Therapists and Small Business   Learn To Develop Android Apps Using Google App Inventor   



0 comments:

Post a Comment


Twitter Facebook Flickr RSS



Français Deutsch Italiano Português
Español 日本語 한국의 中国简体。