Hosting The Right Way

Principles Of Good Web Design

The banner page should clearly indicate what the site is about. Provide a navigation scheme on the first page and stick to it throughout your website. Your logo should be clearly placed above the fold of the page, and the page should clearly state to your visitor EXACTLY what your website is all about. If you fail this, you will lose your visitors faster than anything. Your banner page should be informative, and should call your visitor to action. The banner page is the place where the visitor decides whether it will be worthwhile staying, they will either click on some of your links, or will leave the site. If you have a discount, or if you offer a certain free service in an attempt to make contact with your potential customers, take care to provide the link to this service on your banner page. If you decide to apply some kind of fancy introduction to your first page, take care to offer the possibility for the user to skip the introduction. The link "skip introduction" should be separate from any flash on the page, because you will force the visitor to wait until the whole thing has downloaded. Nothing irritates visitors more and makes them leave faster than being confused or kept waiting.

Structure of navigation A commercial website is NOT the place to experiment with navigation. We expect to see navigation on the left or the top of the site because we read from left to right and top to bottom. Placing navigation on the right of the page can be a fundamental but fatal flaw. Users are becoming used to advertisements on the right of a page and this can create a strange kind of menu blindness. Remember the cardinal rule, if they are confused or kept waiting they will leave. Make it as obvious as you can when it comes to navigation, don't be tempted to experiment for the sake of being different.

Your navigation should be consistent on every page of your website, don't mix and match different menu placement for different situations. Be clear and consistent. While we are on the subject, avoid the need to open menu links in a new browser in a new frame or new window. It is acceptable to open "external links" this way but a frame is always more acceptable. New windows don't always open fully and can look like pop up ads.

Size of font Your font size should be large enough so that your text can be read without effort. There are many people who will not take the trouble of reading tiny fonts. If possible, add an option to resize the font on the page. This is a "requirement" on education and government sites, it is seen as discrimination not to do so. To keep your visitors (and keep them happy) the optimal size seems to be 12-13 point. The visitor should be able to read your text easily and without any effort. Creating breaks between paragraphs makes text easier to read and avoids overloading the visitor.

Line length The length of a line of the type should be comfortable for reading. The optimal line length for printed materials seems to be approximately 10 to 12 words, or 60 to 70 characters. Lines slightly shorter at approximately 40 to 50 characters can be more suitable for longer texts. Long, awkward text looks amateurish and tends to turn the reader off.

Creating emphasis It is important to create emphasis and, handled with taste and good judgement, it can help direct and inform the reader. When these qualities are missing, or each word is given equal importance then your Webpage begins to resemble a battle field and it becomes difficult to read!

Graphics It is well-known that a picture is worth a thousand words (more like a million). This rule applies to the Internet too. Make your best effort to show clear, attractive photographs of your product. If you offer a service, find a photograph which will describe it better. However, pay attention to the size of the file. Try not to compress your photograph to the point where it ceases to be clear. Also don't leave the photograph at full quality. That will make the file much too large, and the loading time will increase.

GIF Vs JPEG Less experienced Web creators mistakenly think that JPG must be better since it optimises pictures and makes them smaller. Well that is half right but if you have pictures or logos with less than 16 or 32 colours why would you need JPG with it's 16+ million colours? Gif can reduce down to 16 or 32 colours and can also include transparency information if needed. Whilst JPG is generally a safe option, it makes sense to be aware of it's limitations (reduction of picture definition, lots of colours) and also the benefits of the GIF format. Personally I have never been a big fan of GIFs, but that doesn't mean that I refuse to use them if the situation warrants it.

Mike runs a Web Design and SEO site in Oxfordshire. Visit his site at The Meeting Junction

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