WebMaster Solutions
Web Site
Design
7 Points to
Improve Your Website Design
by Kenneth Catto
No matter if your
website is a personal site with a few pages or a
huge corporation website, having a good design
is one of the most important things. It matters
a lot to visitors and can make the difference
between leaving a site or bookmarking it. Here
are a few tips to help improve your design:
1. Pages should
load fast. Most people will leave your site if
it's not done loading in ten or 15 seconds. And
even if you have a fast internet connection, not
everyone does and 56k modems still exist.
2. Text should be
easy to read. The text size should be big
enough, and the background should not obscure
your text. If you want to be safe, use black
text on a white background. If you want more
color, choose very carefully to make sure it's
still easy to read.
3. Your website
should be easy to navigate. Each link should be
clearly identified as such and graphic
navigation elements like buttons and tabs should
be easy to read and use. You do not want people
leaving because they could not figure out how
your Flash menu works.
4. Your layout and
design should be consistent. If you switch
between styles too much, you will confuse your
visitors. If the design is too different, people
will believe that they are now on a different
website since the layout changed.
5. Avoid music and
sounds. Very few people like to have music
forced on them while they navigate, especially
if they are already listening to music or
surfing at their job! If you really cannot do
without music, turn it off by default and ask
visitors to start it themselves.
6. Design for
browser compatibility. Many people do not use
Internet Explorer on Windows. Make sure your
site is at least viewable in Mozilla FireFox and
Opera (if possible, you could even try testing
on a Mac). Sites that target markets like
technology should be more careful, since readers
are more likely to use the newest browsers and
gadgets like PDAs.
7. Design for all
screen resolutions. You may like to surf in
1240x1080 with your new screen, but some people
still use 800x600, or even 640x768! A site that
looks perfect in high resolution may turn out to
be impossible to view correctly in 800x600.
And, if you have a
doubt, test, test and test! You can also ask
your family and friends for help. Being less
familiar with the website, they can help find a
lot of things you overlooked.
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