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The Essential Guide to Web Design

As designers, we are often asked to make a web site unique. Clients often have specific ideas for how to achieve this "uniqueness"-sometimes based on technical features they've seen on other sites or ideas they've received from associates. What some clients may not realize, however is that most technical features come with certain trade-offs and drawbacks. For example, if a particular feature is recognized only by certain browsers, you may be limiting the experience for people who view your site through a different browser. In some cases, a browser that is incompatible with a technical feature will simply not display the page at all, yielding a less than satisfactory experience for your site visitors.

As a guide for both our clients and prospective clients, I have compiled a list of do's and don'ts for effective web site design. I hope it helps you in formulating plans for your web site.

Things You Should Do

• Make sure the content of your web site is well organized and that each section is easy to find. A good rule of thumb is to make sure all content can be reached a maximum of two clicks.
  
• Write concise, clear text that effectively provides information. Avoid "oceans of text," as studies have found that people tend to scan web pages rather than reading them in depth. It is, therefore, much more effective to use bullets and to highlight key phrases to help the visitor scan your information.
  
• Make sure you have run spell check and grammar check on your pages to eliminate any errors.
  
• Be sure graphics are professionally created in proper proportion to the page, and that they support the text on the page.
  
• Be sure each page is well laid out and not crammed tight with information. Uncluttered pages are simply more effective.
  
• Put "contact us" instructions on every page of your site. Make it easy for people to get in touch with you.
  
• Be sure to ask friends and family to test your site before it goes public. This will help you assess how visitors actually use the site and make appropriate adjustments to the navigational design. This step can also insure that your site is error-free.
  
• Take into consideration the new section 508 law when designing your site. This law requires companies who receive federal monies to make their web sites accessible to people with disabilities.

• Don't use frames. Search engines and certain browsers have a great deal of difficulty reading page frames, and today's HTML editors can easily achieve the same effects without the use of frames.
  
• Don't overload on animations. Use these sparingly, as they can be distracting to someone interested in your information.
  
• Don't start off with a splash page. Although these pages were popular a couple of years ago, they have become dated and are no longer used much. Web site visitors don't like the extra step it takes to get to the information, and search engines have trouble indexing a site when its homepage contains no text.
  
• Try to avoid abstract icons that are not immediately recognizable, as they tend to confuse web site visitors.
  
• Avoid the extensive use of dark colors. A couple of years ago, it was popular to have a black background with red or neon green text. Study found, however, that those pages were harder to read and almost impossible to print on normal printers. Today's web sites typically use a white background and black text in standard fonts.

Lastly, when designing your web site, try hard to consider how your visitors will use the site. By taking the user's perspective, you'll greatly increase the chances that your web site will be both well received and effective in communicating your company's message.

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