Website design is a creative process, and as such is open to numerous possibilities and design interpretations. It has scope for technical excellence and artistic flair and allows website designers doing the work myriad opportunities to indulge their talents, but for all their variety and scope the best modern websites must contain certain features to allow them to be not only really good to look at, but to be found on search engines, fulfill their actual purpose and follow conventions that surfers are used to. It's no good being the Van Gogh of website design in places like Horsham and Sussex if you get a reputation for producing unusable websites that no one actually looks at.
So what are the features are we talking about? Here goes:
A Catchy, Memorable Title.
You want visitors to remember the site and come back again. A good title makes all the difference. Good tip - It should be as easy to say as it is to read. If it's a company website and the name of the company isn't that great, discuss with the owner of using a slogan as the page title instead.
A Well Thought Out Navigation Menu.
Visitors must be able to find their way around the website, as must the search engine spiders. A muddled collection of pages with no coherent structure will just have surfers clicking away to other sites. The main navigation menu should be decided before you even begin work on the pages. Amendments and additions can come later, but the main structure should be logical and easy to follow.
A Site Map.
Site maps may not seem important for smaller websites with only a few pages, but sites invariably grow. Get in the habit of creating site maps for all websites right from the beginning. As the complexity of the site increases it helps everyone, and of course they're now a must for good search engine indexing. Neglecting the site map will make SEO work that much more difficult.
Contact Details.
Ideally you should include a separate contacst page, but if not there should be contact details that are easy to find. If the website owner doesn't want people to get in touch you have to wonder why they want a website in the first place, and for a commercial website it's an absolute must. It's no good impressing prospects with a great website if they can't then place their orders! You can obviously consider the method of contact, particularly if you're worried about spam mail and calls to numbers that need to be kept private, but a method needs to exist.
Standardised Layouts.
There is no excuse for not using CSS and standardised layouts and text. To do otherwise is just bad design and an affront to any website designer worth his salt. It looks better and is easier on the eye for users, and from a commercial point of view creates a much better impression of the company or organisation that owns the website.
Use Headings
Break your pages up with good use of headings and subheadings. A block of text on a page, especially if you're using a small font, will usually just be glanced at and generally ignored. People tend to scan read web pages, with their eyes hopping around the graphics, margins and menu's. To draw a visitors eyes to the text content use headings, they stand out and become part of the scan reading dance. If you're clever with your wording the readers will get the message of the page from just the headings alone, and make sure you include your keywords as the search engines love headings as well. If you can't figure this out yourself get a good copywriter who can, it really is worth it.
Let Your Pages Load - Keep them Light.
What I mean by this is be aware of how fast your page designs will load on to user's screens. If you include a lot of Flash and video your website pages may be quite slow to appear, particularly on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Don't get carried away by what you can see on the page as you're designing it, concentrating on how fabulous the overall effect is. Be aware that each element has to make it to the user's page and that takes time.
Links Should Open New Windows
Links to other pages on the website are essential to help easy navigation to other pages that might be of interest to visitors, but be a little more cautious with links to other websites. You don't want to lose the visitor. When you create links to external websites make sure they're set to open in a new window, that way your own window is still open in the browser and much more likely to see that surfer return.
Is That It?
Not really, there are lots of other details that go in to making a great website, but if you make sure you've covered these basics, you're well on the way and your website will certainly be professional, user friendly and search engine friendly. I'm sure other web designers will have their own thoughts and views on this subject, so do keep an open mind and never stop listening to the advice out there.
So what are the features are we talking about? Here goes:
A Catchy, Memorable Title.
You want visitors to remember the site and come back again. A good title makes all the difference. Good tip - It should be as easy to say as it is to read. If it's a company website and the name of the company isn't that great, discuss with the owner of using a slogan as the page title instead.
A Well Thought Out Navigation Menu.
Visitors must be able to find their way around the website, as must the search engine spiders. A muddled collection of pages with no coherent structure will just have surfers clicking away to other sites. The main navigation menu should be decided before you even begin work on the pages. Amendments and additions can come later, but the main structure should be logical and easy to follow.
A Site Map.
Site maps may not seem important for smaller websites with only a few pages, but sites invariably grow. Get in the habit of creating site maps for all websites right from the beginning. As the complexity of the site increases it helps everyone, and of course they're now a must for good search engine indexing. Neglecting the site map will make SEO work that much more difficult.
Contact Details.
Ideally you should include a separate contacst page, but if not there should be contact details that are easy to find. If the website owner doesn't want people to get in touch you have to wonder why they want a website in the first place, and for a commercial website it's an absolute must. It's no good impressing prospects with a great website if they can't then place their orders! You can obviously consider the method of contact, particularly if you're worried about spam mail and calls to numbers that need to be kept private, but a method needs to exist.
Standardised Layouts.
There is no excuse for not using CSS and standardised layouts and text. To do otherwise is just bad design and an affront to any website designer worth his salt. It looks better and is easier on the eye for users, and from a commercial point of view creates a much better impression of the company or organisation that owns the website.
Use Headings
Break your pages up with good use of headings and subheadings. A block of text on a page, especially if you're using a small font, will usually just be glanced at and generally ignored. People tend to scan read web pages, with their eyes hopping around the graphics, margins and menu's. To draw a visitors eyes to the text content use headings, they stand out and become part of the scan reading dance. If you're clever with your wording the readers will get the message of the page from just the headings alone, and make sure you include your keywords as the search engines love headings as well. If you can't figure this out yourself get a good copywriter who can, it really is worth it.
Let Your Pages Load - Keep them Light.
What I mean by this is be aware of how fast your page designs will load on to user's screens. If you include a lot of Flash and video your website pages may be quite slow to appear, particularly on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Don't get carried away by what you can see on the page as you're designing it, concentrating on how fabulous the overall effect is. Be aware that each element has to make it to the user's page and that takes time.
Links Should Open New Windows
Links to other pages on the website are essential to help easy navigation to other pages that might be of interest to visitors, but be a little more cautious with links to other websites. You don't want to lose the visitor. When you create links to external websites make sure they're set to open in a new window, that way your own window is still open in the browser and much more likely to see that surfer return.
Is That It?
Not really, there are lots of other details that go in to making a great website, but if you make sure you've covered these basics, you're well on the way and your website will certainly be professional, user friendly and search engine friendly. I'm sure other web designers will have their own thoughts and views on this subject, so do keep an open mind and never stop listening to the advice out there.
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