- Planning
- Simplicity
- Navigation
- Interesting Content
- Good design
- Ease of use
- Simple backend
- Performance
- Help/Instructions
- Compatibility
A good web site is one that gives the user what they require, quickly, and with as little fuss as possible. Web sites need to contain vital elements on top of this, however, to ensure that users make the most of the site and keep coming back for more.
In this article, I hope take you through what good web design means to both surfer and web designer, explaining the elements of site design stepbystep.
This is perhaps the most important stage of web design and covered in detail on index item three. Many top web designers start on paper and then develop more detailed planning on the computer, looking at all the factors that will affect their work before starting. Who is the site for? What information will they need? How would they want it presented? All are questions that need to be answered before starting the design process or visiting a web design agency.
The planning process will throw up a series of questions and the answers will dictate the direction of your web design. The main emphasis revolves around why the site is needed, who will be using it and what are their needs? Once these questions are answered, the design is fairly straightforward.
<< By good design we mean uncluttered layout and not having to scroll through reams of plain text. >>
Many of the best web sites are the most simple - Go to www.yahoo.co.uk and see how many links and how much text there is. Now visit www.orange.co.uk and compare it. Both sites have large volumes of information on them, but where Yahoo fails, Orange succeeds. A page on Yahoo takes nearly a minute to read and digest all the links, but the Orange site is far simpler and only offers a few options and five promotional links on the main page. The animations attract attention for those browsing and the links at the bottom offer easy navigation for those users who know what they are looking for.
Some of the most effective web sites are those with a few links and lots of space, but what happens if you need to link thousands of pages to the main one? Do you try multilevel menus, search engines or just careful thinking as to what headings to put things under? Two approaches to dealing with a large number of pages are taken by www.compaq.com and www.environment-agency.co.uk. Compaq's site is easy and pleasant to use while the Environment Agency's site has far too many links and information on the home page. Both Compaq and IBM have sites with thousands of pages that are simple and easy to digest. The information you need is only a click or away, the home pages are uncluttered with good use of white space and both fit on a single screen.
Good navigation is vital for a wellcrafted web site and is closely linked to how the site is organized. Think through what should be where, and then think about how your visitors will move through the site.
It should be as easy as possible to move around your site. Navigation should be simple and clear. It should be consistent. The worst kind of navigation is that which changes position on the page or loses some of its components when moving to a different page.
<< Good design is all about helping users to find information and making the sales process as easy and pleasing as possible. >>
On large web sites with a wealth of content, good navigation systems feature the capacity to expand in some way. This may be visual or may be in the form of a secondary navigation layer, complementary to the primary links. The best expanding systems enable you to see the route you've taken from the home page to your current location. The exit route should be clear with usually a single click to get back to the home page. An example can be seen at www.dimenica.com if the site is large, it should have a local search facility on it. This enables visitors to move to pages of interest quickly and easily. Also worth considering is a dropdown menu so that visitors can scope out the content and quickly move to a target area. Navigation doesn't have to be complex and versatility is important. The BBC news online site at news.bbc.co.uk features a beautifully simple system using text down one side of the screen and a sectional menu down the other. The BBC can then change its links frequently to respond to news stories as they break. Any text or graphics used in a navigation system should be clear. Navigation systems with low quality graphics or unreadable text are next to useless.
The first consideration when deciding on the content for a web site is to think about the target audience and purpose of the site. You must ensure that there is a reason for people to read your content. This means that the content of the site should be useful or entertaining to those people.
There are many examples of sites with good content (and many without) but a superb example is the winner of this year Yell awards `site of the year' called `Birds In a Cheshire Garden' at www.abcissa.force9.co.uk/birds. Even if the subject matter is not one that appeals' check out the site, as it is excellent. A web site should be interesting and well presented. Rather than large pages of text it is better to present information in small chunks. Pertinent points should be made without waffle. There should be discernible spaces between paragraphs.
If you have to place large amounts of text on the site for informational purposes, then it's best to put these on as downloadable documents. If you do this then be sure to tell people the size of the file before they begin downloading so they know what to expect. Above all, the content of the site should be frequently updated, kept fresh and up to date. There's nothing worse than visiting a site with old content.
There should be a good level of interactivity within the content if possible. This might take the form of a competition, quiz, game or anything else, which will entertain or interest your visitor. Clearly these should be used when and if appropriate and there are many other ways a site can be interactive.
5.Good (and Interactive) Design
By good design we mean uncluttered layout, not having to scroll through reams of plain text and having image rather than textbased links. Good design is about helping users to find information and making the sales process as easy and pleasing as possible.
Most web design agencies believe strongly in interactivity and one, www.Blueberry.co.uk, goes as far as using the phrase "personalize or perish - allow the user to take control and customize and personalize the content". Interactivity is the key to user retention. An interactive and customisable site will give users the ability to make the site what they want so the information or services they require are always right at their fingertips. Interactivity can be achieved through backend databases or the use of Flash or Java to create dynamic content or interactive features that keep users coming back.
Ease of use is critical for a business web site to be successful. The simple fact is that most surfers will lose interest in a site and move on to another site if they can't easily find their way around, or locate the information they are looking for.
The key to ease of use is in the careful structuring and planning of the information on the site and the use of an intelligently designed and attractive interface.
As a site owner you must be focused on what you want to say to your audience and not bombard them with large quantities of padding - give customers what they want and they will come back for more.
<< The human brain can only focus on a relatively small amount of information at any one time. >>
The design of the interface also helps in this delivery of information. It's no good having great information if the interface is unusable or scares off the surfer. You need to employ a graphic designer who understands the structure of your information and can wrap an intuitive and stylish interface around the site, which guides the surfer through the content.
Avoid busy, messy, textheavy, jumbled home pages; messy unclear graphics in navigation and keep the concept simple.
Use - simple intro pages of leading to well structured home pages; clear but stylish graphics for navigation and simple flash movies for interactive content (fast to download, as is the plug in).
Keep returned data information to the bare essentials. There are two main reasons for this: Firstly, people who surf the net are driven away by reams of scrolling text and don't stay long enough on a particular site to digest it all. Research in cognitive psychology has found that the human brain can only focus on a relatively small amount of information at any one time until it decides to move on. If information is not readily forthcoming, it is easy to click on the "back" button or type a new web address.
A neatly designed interface screen brings back information in an intuitive human fashion that we find more comfortable to interact with and compliments our demand for quick relative information. The interface should be easy to use to ensure that the user waits for information to be processed and returned.
Returned information should be short and to the point - just keep the bare essentials. When using a backend database, there is relatively little that a user needs to see, so remove everything that doesn't need to be there and design a simple interface around it.
The greatest problem in web design is getting the site to run quickly while still looking pleasing to the eye. Good images take up more space, and with limited bandwidth, image quality and size are often compromised to ensure fast loading.
<< Poor maintenance is unprofessional and can result in loss of sales, so perform a daily audit if the site has lots of pages. >>
Always keep the site up to date. Good working order is essential for users to get the most out of the site, especially if you need them to return. When you design a site, you must think about how often it will be updated, who will do the updates and how much they will cost, sites must be designed with their maintainer in mind. The environment agency home page show is the risks that you take by designing a complex page - one missing image results in whole area being unreachable. Poor maintenance is unprofessional and can result in loss of sales, so perform a daily audit if the site has lots of pages.
Don't rely on good navigation. Users aren't necessarily as clever as designers. It is always a good idea to include a help file and link on each page to explain the navigation system and provide a site map.
HTML, DHTML, Java, Javascript, ASP, CGI, Perl, Corba, etc. the list is endless, so how do you go about choosing which one to use while optimising the effect of the site? Web design is a balancing act of choosing technology and against capability. The latest technology is great and can really have an impact on your site, but is that any use if only you can look at it? Many companies build several versions of the site and use Javascript to determine which browser version is used and what capabilities the browser has, while others just put a link on a welcome page. I tend to prefer the first option. If you're selling to less technologically advanced countries, take a look at Yahoo's site - it offers everything the user needs and is even compatible with Netscape 2 browsers.
Combine these ten elements in your design and you're guaranteed a successful web site.