Website design
In today’s business climate there can be no more important IT issue than website design. Whether a business specialises in the corporate sphere, the private sector or E-commerce, website design is a crucial factor to its potential success.
It is important when designing a website to remember to keep each of its pages structured. In recent years there have been many great developments in website design, including an explosion of possible grid layouts and css files. A common error in website design is an over-reliance on boxes: many websites use up to 20 boxes of varying sizes. There are two downsides to this approach: it means that the website structure does not line up properly, lessening its appeal, and it also does not give the reader any particular part of the page to focus on. These issues are inadvisable in website design.
Although it sounds like an obvious point to make, an important aspect of website design – regardless of the type or purpose of the website - is making sure that it highlights the main message that its creators wish to put across. Good website design should allow readers to understand the site or page’s key message within two seconds of logging on, and the content of the website should not be obscured by advertisements or useless information.
The concept of website design includes choice of colour scheme. Being in touch with the expectations and characteristics of a website’s visitors is helpful in choosing which colours it is created in. For example, bright, loud colours spoil a website design if it is intended for a calm pursuit such as chess. On the other hand, website design for a rock band should not include calmer colours.
A general tip for web design of all types of websites is not to use too many different colours, as these distract the reader from the main message.
Websites must be designed practically. Internet users tend not to have the patience to spend more than a few seconds trying to understand out what a website is about and what it has to offer. In terms of website design, the best way to ensure that a website makes a good first impression on a reader is to make the page easy to scan. This suggests good use of H tags and a focus on the important items. Other useful website design features include pull quotes, block quotes and images.
Finally, it is crucial that when undertaking web design enough thought is given to how words are used. When writing copy especially for the web, it is prudent to write in shorter paragraphs – i.e., with more line spaces – as this makes text more visually attractive and is more easily read on a computer screen. If a website makes use of forms, it has been proven that forms with more than three items (often – name, email and one other piece of information) are significantly less successful than more straightforward forms. Internet users do not appreciate time-consuming activities, so a vital aspect of website design is making the website as easy to navigate as possible for readers.
