1) It should be easy to find the information you're looking for.
Good organization:
One of the most important things to consider when designing a website is how the site is organized. The organization should be planned in a way that will make it easy for the user to find what they are looking for. When many users open a website and can't figure out where to click to find the information they need within a few seconds, they will leave the site.
To make your website easy to navigate:
- Place a set of links on every page of the site for navigation. A user should never have to press the back button. You should at least include one link going back to the index page so that users can get back to the starting point.
- Offer an overview of the site with a site map or table of contents.
Another important issue to consider to help make your website easy to navigate is the presentation. You should maintain a consistant look-and-feel with the same colour scheme, background, logos, and other graphics thoughout the entire site. This will help the user understand where to find things as they browse through the website. It's also a good idea to keep the design clean and simple to make it easy to read.
A few additional tips:
- Flash, animation, and large graphics don't necessarily make a website better. A site should only include elements that are necessary.
- Black text on a white background is easier to read than white text on a dark background.
- Make sure that you edit your content well. Spelling mistakes will make you look unprofessional.
2) It should load quickly.
The average user has a 10 second attention span. Make sure the site loads fast in order to capture their attention.
Ways to make sure the loading time is fast:
- Keep the pages short. It's better to split up information into multiple pages than to have everything on one page.
- Use graphics sparingly.
- Optimize graphics for web display (max 20 kb per graphic).
- Break up tables.
- Use width and height attributes for images to speed up load time.
- Provide text alternatives to images.
3) It should include interesting and useful information.
Finally, to have a good website you should include content that is interesting and useful. Continually update the site and add new material. This will increase the chances that users will keep coming back to the site. Another idea is to make the site interactive with features such as polls, surveys, and forums.
About the Author:
Christine Daughtry has been working as a freelance graphic designer since 2001, specializing in icon design for software applications, websites, and mobile devices. Visit http://www.iconartist.com.
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Concise and well written
| Overall rating: | 5.0 |
Reviewed by adLinguasDecember 12, 2009
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