When you are aware of what you’re doing, designing a website can be fun. When you see effective web design in action, you instantly view the site to be of high quality and very user-friendly. Education is crucial to successful web design. Start expanding your knowledge with the tips we offer here.
Avoid using so-called “mystery meat navigation”. This involves using unlabeled images or other elements for the site’s navigation. In many cases, the visitor has to mouse over the buttons to even see what they do. Navigation is best kept simple. Use text links across the top or along the left side of the page.
Avoid creating user interface (UI) controls that mislead your visitors. These controls include elements, widgets and more that create an interactive experience, such as a link, drop-down list or button. You do not want to make visitors think that clicking on an underlined word or phrase for example, will lead to a new page if it is not actually linked to something else. When your visitors have expectations of something working a certain way and it does not, they are more likely to assume there is something wrong with your site and leave.
Do your best to store any personal information of your users so that they don’t have to enter it over and over again on your site. When a user needs to enter their information multiple times to sign up for various options you give them, make it so that they don’t have to enter duplicate info from beginning to end on their own repeatedly. This “sticky” information can make the process easier and smoother for visitors and they’ll appreciate it.
Have a site map. These are useful to your clients and the search engines, as they give a detailed overview of your entire website. It can be a guide for viewers searching for a certain part of your site, and also allow you to keep track of its structure and layout.
While you might be inclined to add a lot of bells and whistles to your website, flashing graphics, loud music and neon colors will just distract from the purpose of your website. Visitors who are bombarded by too many sights and sounds might be inclined to leave your website before they even start browsing. Keep the colors simple and the content relevant and your website design will be a winner.
Solicit feedback from visitors to your website. That way, if they are having a problem or there are missing items on your pages, you will be made aware and can fix the problem. You can encourage your visitors to come back to your site over and over by giving them the opportunity to contribute to the quality of it.
The best web sites communicate a lot of information in a small amount of words. If you are long-winded, people will easily get bored and find another site that is more concise. Make sure any content is relevant and easy to understand – newspapers use an eighth grade reading level, which is the most common literacy level.
Refrain from including frames on your site. Although some users like frames, information inside the frame will not show up when searched. Your website won’t rank high if the information isn’t visible. Your traffic suffers if you fail to do this.
The beginning of this article stated that great web design can really be something to behold. It is easy to distinguish a bad design from a good one, but there are things that can be done to improve a design that is sub par. Read over the tips in this article a second time to ensure you know exactly what goes into an impressive web design.
