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8 Tips for
Designing a Great Website
Copyright 2004 Ivana Katz
Square buttons,
round buttons, flashy buttons … will they match my shoes, my handbag or my
tie? Are you stuck in a maze of buttons, headings, bullets, sub-headings and
colour schemes?
STOP!!!!
Take a deep breath and read some
practical tips for professional looking websites.
1. Select a colour
scheme and stick to it.
If your company has a logo or preferred colours
on its stationery that’s a good start. For those of you starting from
scratch, choose two or three complementary colours and stick with them –
don’t change colours on every page.
The most common colour schemes
include:
- Red, yellow and white
- Blue and white
- Red, grey and
white
- Blue, orange and white
- Yellow, grey and white.
If you’re
not sure what colour scheme to choose, surf the internet and find a website
that you like. You can then model your colour scheme on what already
exists.
2. Use templates.
Can’t find a website you really like?
Another option is to choose a template. There are many templates or
pre-set designs. These come as part of your web design software (such as
FrontPage) or you can check out some websites that specialise in designing
templates.
Visit:
http://www.web4business.com.au/templates1.htm
http://www.newtemps.com
http://www.website-templates-resale-rights.com
http://www.123webtemplatesandmore.com
3. Provide an easy to use
navigation system.
This is one of the most important issues to consider
when
designing a website. You need to ensure your visitors can find what
they are looking for easily. Most websites either display their navigation
bar on the left or at the top. And since most people are used to this type
of navigation, it’s best to stick with it.
It also helps to include
your navigation bar at the bottom of each page to save your visitors from
having to scroll back to the top.
4. Don’t go overboard on special
effects
Whilst it is ok to have one or two special effects to jazz up
your website, spinning graphics and logos often distract your visitor from
the content, not to mention they can take too long to download. Your visitors
may click away even before your spinning logo finishes
loading.
5. Backgrounds
Ensure your visitors can read the
text on the background, ie. no black writing on dark blue background or
yellow on white. Also be careful that your links are visible before and
after being visited. The default for links in most programs is blue (before
being visited) and burgundy (after being visited), so if you have a dark
background, ensure your links are light.
6. External
Links
It is a good idea to open links to other websites in a
new window. That way your visitors can easily return to your site when
they are finished browsing the external link
7. Site Map & Search
Feature
If you website is more than 15 pages, it is useful to have a
site map or a “Search” feature to ensure your visitors can easily find what
they’re looking for.
8. Content is King
While it is important that
your website looks clean and professional, it is far more important that you
concentrate your efforts on the content and promotion.
If you want a
professional website, things to stay away from include:
1. Flash
intros, revolving globes, bevelled line
separators, animated mail boxes
2.
Loads of pop up or pop under boxes
3. Autoplay music. Allow your customer to
play music only if they choose.
4. Hit counters of the free variety, which
say “you are 27th visitor”
5. Date and time stamps, unless your website is
updated daily or weekly
6. Busy backgrounds.
Don’t sweat the small
stuff and get yourself focussed on what to include on the website and the
best way to promote it. We will cover these topics in future
articles.
About the Author:
Ivana Katz is the owner of
Websites 4 Small Business, a company specialising in the design and promotion
of small and home-based business websites. She believes that
every business deserves to have a successful website, no matter what its
budget is. For more information visit
http://www.web4business.com.au or email info@web4business.com.au
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