design » resources » design elements
Design ElementsAn effective website design follows three main principles:
Give Visitors What They WantThis may seem like an elementary concept but you would be surprised at how many websites fail to do this. Some websites focus so heavily on company history or self-praise that visitors are left wondering, "what do they do?" or more importantly, "what can they do for me?" If you sell a product or a service, the first page of your website should emphasize this. Once the first page is taken care of, you must provide content for the website that is:
While it can be time consuming to put together such content, a common mistake of many website owners is to provide a partial or even temporary piece of content for the site with the intention of completing it later. That's right, the old procrastination trap. Does a business get less busy over time? Ease of UseSo you've put together the best website content in the world but what good is it if people cannot find it? So many websites utilize unstructured or obscure navigational methods that make most content nearly impossible to locate. Ease of use consists of a site which has:
The navigation should use precise and common language--avoid trendy phrases or slang terms. Remember, you want people to find information quickly and easily. Each page of the website should load very quickly. If a page takes too long to load, the visitor may lose interest and go elsewhere. Remember, the website already has the visitor's attention--they are already at your site because they believe that you have what they want. You don't need to further continue to impress the visitor with pretty graphics and animations: content rules. Legibility is another big one. Proper use of color, fonts, design, and layout can mean the different between an excellent website and an eyesore. Websites should be designed to look the same in different browsers and on different computers. Remember, you want to cater to the largest audience possible--if you lose one client because they couldn't read or understand your website, that is one client too many. Finding Your WebsiteThe old adage of if you build it, they will come does not apply. This cannot be emphasized enough. So many companies make the mistake of paying for a website and then just waiting for clients to roll in--it's not going to happen. People usually locate a website in one of three ways:
Word of mouth advertising, as you may know, is one of the most cost-effective and efficient ways to market a business. The same goes for websites. You want everyone to know the name of your business and you want everyone possible to find your website, right? Put your website on your business cards, flyers, brochures, your vehicle, your advertising--EVERYWHERE! Offline promotion of a website will do more for your business than any search engine or link exchange can do in a short time. Search engines have gotten better and better over the years. Their reach is far and wide across the Internet. If you want to find information about virtually anything, a search engine will get you there in a few keystrokes and a couple clicks. What about your site? Can people find it easily in a search engine? Too often companies will put up a website with nothing done to optimize the website for search engine indexing. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should be as much a part of the design process as the design itself. Finally, links from other sites can help drive traffic to your website. While we will not go into the details of this there are a few important concepts to remember. Links from other sites should be from relevant sources (i.e. a website selling kids products will not benefit from a link placed on a auto repair forum). Additionally, there exists many free places in which you can advertise a link to your site (i.e. Craig's List, etc.). ------------------- |