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What is Good Website Design?
Popular books on web design don't burn well.
Most best-selling books on website design are popular for one reason - their titles. Contrary to the words used in their titles, there are no "secrets" or quick ways to make a site great. Those books who promise an easy path to a successful design are not worth the paper they are printed on for anyone other than the beginner. They focus on simple design tricks and gloss over in-depth design strategies, website promotion, effective writing and simple website visitor psychology. It is these glossed over issues that make a site successful above and beyond a "cool-looking website." The bottom line is that the website owner wants their website to generate business and make money more than they want it to be a work of art. Good website design is a development philosophy, not a superficial checklist.
A well designed website has three features:
- It has what visitors want.
- It's intuitive to use.
- It's easy to find.
All of the above are dependent on each other. Removal of any single item results in fewer visitors and poor visitor satisfaction. The starting point and focus is making sure the site has what the visitor wants.
Giving Visitors What They Want
This may sound overly simple but it is amazing how many websites fail to do this. The absolute primary focus of your website should be the product, service or information that visitors seek, especially on the home page. Some sites focus on the trivia of how long they've been in business, their employee of the month or equally useless self praise. As the website owner, you may think having this trivia on the first page impresses visitors of a superior business or organization. Only the website owner is impressed, not the typical visitor. Remember, visitors are impressed by the quality of content that gave cause to visit the website and not by mindless company boasting.
With the first page focusing on what visitors want. Now your website has to provide what they want with content. You've failed to give them what they want if there is no content. The content must be:
- Complete
- Easy to understand
- Current.
The above three are not multiple choice; all are required. Yes, it can be very time consuming to collect content and make sure it is complete before handing it to the website developer. A common mistake of many website owners is that they initially collect content with the intent of completing it later, but "later" never arrives. Many websites let content to become obsolete and this can be interpreted as being the quality of your product or service. The content is the responsibility of the website owner, not the developer. The developer may assist in presenting or writing the content but the owner is responsible for making sure it is right. [For more information on what the owner could be doing, see Being Part of the Design Process]
Making it Easy to Use
Having great content means nothing if the visitor can't get at it. An easy to use website can differentiate between a great site and mediocrity. Ease of use consists of:
- Intuitive navigation
- Fast page loading
- Legibility
Navigation is how the different pages in a website are accessed. Precise use of language is preferred over trendy or slang titles for navigation buttons. This is because of the vast diversity visitors have that can visit your website. Even local interest websites will have visitors from around the world. Making navigation precise and clear will allow visitors to find the website's content... before they become impatient and leave.
Nobody wants to wait for a page to load. It is especially annoying to wait a page to load only to find out that it is some unrelated advertising, graphics without page content or, simply something the visitor isn't interested in. The key point is that the website already has the visitor's attention. They are already at your website because they believe website has content they want. The need to impress them with cutting edge graphics is minimized because the website already has their attention. Their attention will be even more strong if content is best quality. Most important is content which can be accented by style and graphics. Style and graphics should never be emphasized second to content.
Not everyone uses the same browser, has the same screen resolution or, even the same type of computer. Even different versions of the same brand popular browsers don't display web pages the same. Use of textured backgrounds, color combinations are frequently misused with the thought that the page should "jump out at you." Attention to an awful design is the only thing that "jumps out" with heavy background textures or weird color combinations. The basis of a website's visual design should never be of the philosophy of "to grab their attention." When a visitor arrives at your website, it already has their attention. A dramatic appearance should never impede the ease in legibility of the page. Good design is where visual style emphasizes the image of your organization.
Finding Your Website
People typically find websites three ways.
- Search Engines.
- Links from other websites.
- Being told the address.
Search engine optimization is the weakest area for most designers. They are becoming increasingly complex and some requiring payment even to be listed. There are a multitude of variables including what strategies and tools your competitors might be using that affect listing position for a search. The effective use of these tools requires more than a casual knowledge of how the different search engines work. However, the most effective tool is writing properly for search engines and is where most websites fail miserably. For example, the title of this essay "What Is Good Website Design?" will have better ranking in search results than if this essay were titled "What Is Good Design?" The key in this example is what kind of design - website. The point is to write content, all content, to explicitly address the topic. Most web content writers don't realize that effective writing for the web is different than writing for print. In addition, there are many proven techniques available to designers to improve listing position. However, effective use of these tools and techniques require real content above anything else and more than a casual knowledge of how the different search engines work. The amount of detailed, concise content is the primary key to have your site highly visible in searches. Good website design understands how to write content and maximize page layouts for best efficiency towards searches.
Getting another site to link to yours is a good idea. It is another source of visitors, even if the other site has few visitors of its own. This is because some search engine results listings are partially determined by how many other sites link to it. The more that link to your website, the better. If the other website is well visited, you benefit again!
The website is an integral part of your business. It should be mentioned all printed items you own, e.g., business cards, promotional literature, invoices, etc. If you advertise, make sure it is mentioned prominently in your advertisements too. Make it easy to find the website even if it is a small one. [For more information on integrating your business and the Internet, see Your Company on The Internet - Effectively]
What about graphics?
Why did you visit this website? It would be a safe guess that it wasn't because you were interested in some cutting edge graphics. Graphics are important to the extent that they extend and complement the image of your organization. Graphics should never be the focus of a website nor should they detract from its content. This can be hard to believe for many new to website design with their desire is to impress the visitor... or the stronger desire to impress the client... who is NOT the visitor! This misguided desire can clutter a website with inappropriate graphics and animations. Good website content will positively impress the visitor. Appropriate graphics will reinforce that good impression.
Ruin your website easily
You have lots of content, it's current and detailed. You have an excellent visual layout and graphics that reflects your professionalism. Just one problem, it is written poorly. Writing without spelling or grammatical errors is mandatory. Nothing can destroy a positive impression to a visitor faster than misspelled words or poor grammar causing the visitor to leave for good. Consider the value of a website's products and services when it's fraught with misspellings and common grammar errors. Is this the image of professionalism that you want to project to your visitors? For me, it is most difficult part of design. Writing it correctly should be completed without errors before posting it to the website and never take the view of "good enough for now" with the intent of correcting it later. Of course, over time, content should be reviewed and updated as necessary.
Is it tuned?
Every good website is under continuous development. Pages are constantly tuned because search engines, visitor interests and website content changes. Frequent review of performance with tuning will insure that visitors find your website and easily find what they want. This will be reflected by the business your website generates.