Powerful Web Design

With dozens of new sites coming online every second, it's important to make your company's web page stand out from the pack. Effective design can help you establish a strong internet presence; a good site design can help you increase sales and improve click-through ratios, not to mention boost your visitor count। Therefore, when creating a site layout for your business, it's important to remember a few key points.

Abide by the carpenter's old saw: measure twice, cut once. Before going out and spending a large amount of money on a site design, make sure that you have a clearly defined stylistic direction। Many companies, small and large, make the mistake of using "brainstorming on the fly", raking up huge contractor bills through countless tweaks during the (very expensive) design process. This is an incredibly costly mistake, yet it can be easily avoided by a bit of planning. Decide on the basics: target functionality, color scheme, performance target, and browser compatibility. Once you've got those down, move on to sketching out some designs (or, if your not too much of an artist, writing out a description of the site's layout). Armed with rough sketches/outlines and a plan for your site's "look", you'll be better prepared to work with the company/individual doing the redesign.

Watch the competition. The Internet landscape changes quickly, so it's critical that you keep an eye on your competition. You don't want to find out that your competitor recently revamped his online store, and you're now loosing money because your site design doesn't compare well. Don't fall prey to the "not invented here" syndrome. If a competitor's site features an innovative design technique that allows for faster navigation or a better user experience, you should take a close look at it, and see if it can be adapted for your site. Don't copy designs -- use your competitors sites as a target for your site's design. If your site is more aesthetically pleasing and easier to use than your competitors, then you've met your most important design goal.


Have navigation. At a bare minimum, your site should have navigation available at the top -- but splitting the navigation between the top of the page and a sidebar is an acceptable alternative। The main point is, have some. It's not 1997 anymore -- you should never tell users to click their back button, nor should you make them feel as though they have to in order to navigate your site. Instead, your navigation system should allow them to easily see all their navigation options. Clean design is especially important when it comes to menus: the easier to read the entries, the better. Remember: if it's easier for your visitors to navigate your site, it'll be easier for you to make money.

Choose solid fonts. Typically, fonts should be clean and out of the way -- you want your users focusing on the text of the site, not the type of text. Arial is a good standard choice for body text, and Georgia is often picked for headlines -- but really, any sans-serif (or clean serif) font will do. Just make sure you don't pick a font that's not available on the majority of your users computers (or if you do, specify a good-looking fallback।)

Pick colors consistent with your brand/image. Your website is an extension of your company, and its design should reflect that. Customizing your web site layout to your brand is worth the time it takes: your customers will see a polished, professional site।

Think speed. Did you know that the average visitor forms an opinion about the website he's visiting in less than two seconds? While you can change first impressions, it's difficult to do, especially if the user has navigated away from your site। Prevent that by having a page that loads quickly on the lowest common denominator connection that your users use.

Don't depend on JavaScript. I'm not saying that your site should avoid using JavaScript at all -- it's a fine language, and it has it's uses। However, at no point should you make your site dependent on JavaScript. Not only will you prevent a percentage of your users from using your site (screenreaders don't support JavaScript, and some people don't have it enabled), but you'll open yourself up to having to deal with numerous cross-browser incompatibilities.

By following the above rules, you should be able to get through the site design process with a minimum of expense, ending up with a polished, refined, optimized site design that will put your competitors to shame।

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