5 Useful Tips for Creating Great Websites..
When it comes to creating a new website, there are fundamental elements that must be touched upon before even starting. The level of success you will achieve will depend on how well thought-out the website plan is; with scope for growth and development, and additional features being essential..
1. Website Title.
Make your website title catchy. A Web site title like “Dave’s Web Site” is not going to light up the eyes of your visitors. Without a relevant or intriguing title for your site, potential users may not click on it. For example, if you are a media company – try to use ‘media’ in the website URL (www.topclickmedia.co.uk) etc.
2. Design, Colour Palette & Layout
With so many websites out there, you will want yours to stand out from the crowd. It is useful to spend time shortlisting 5-10 websites (within the same industry, but not essential) that you like – it may be that the colour scheme appeals to you or it may be that certain elements give you inspirations, ideas, or help with brainstorming.
Navigation & Usability
Navigation is an essential part of any website (as it serves as the vehicle in which your users navigate your pages). You will need to decide how best to display your contents (whether horizontal pop-out menu, or vertical slide down menu etc).
An easily navigatable website will hit the ground running in terms of success – there is nothing more frustrating (and confusing) than a site where it is not clear how to find products / articles/ features.
Key Points for Usability
A. Don’t make me think (general layout, buttons, search features) -
Users will soon get frustrated, bored or both if they have to struggle to get around your site..
B. Facts of internet life
Users don’t really read pages (they skim over them).
Users don’t make optimal choices (more trial and error to navigate through the site with the back button being used alot!)
Users Muddle through – not usually taking time to read instructions.
KEEP YOUR SITE SIMPLE! A SIMPLE IDEA…. DONE WELL
C. ‘Comfort’ factor – Site ID, Page Name, Sections & Subsections, Local Navigation, “You are Here” indicators, Search etc.
D. Usability Testing.
DO NOT create a site with ‘blinders’ on!
Remember that users will be seeing your site through different browsers, different screen resolutions etc – so make sure you test cross-browser prior to launching!
Columns
You will no doubt want to create a design depending on what it is that your site offers; from multi-column layouts (seen on news sites like http://www.cnn.com/ and
http://www.ft.com) to less compact 2-column layouts (seen on sites like www.ebay.co.uk)
Using Grid Overlay
Grids are a fundamental concept to design that transcend trends. Long after the shiny, sans-serify, reflective shadows of web 2.0 are gone, grids will still be here. Grid Layouts are used in all types of design – ranging from magazine layout, to poster design layout to web design layout.
In order for your grids to be really effective, you need to honer them. Do Not get into the practice of “this sort of lines up with this, which sort of lines up with that”. It has to line up flush, or the end result will feel amateurish and cheap. After all – attention to detail is what makes great designers great!
Typography & White Space.
Good typography is just as important on a web page as it is in any other medium. The fact that it appears on a computer screen and not on a piece of paper is immaterial, it should still be pleasing to look at and easy to read.
In every situation where type is used – in publishing, signage, packaging, television etc. – the designer has to adapt his techniques to suit the medium.
A headline style that works in a magazine spread may not necessarily work on a website.
Designing for a computer screen has its own set of problems. Add to these the elastic nature of a web page, which has to work across different computer platforms and screen sizes, and the problems get even worse.
White space can be (and should be) utilized for website readeability. If your website pages do not stream lines of text across vast distances, they will ultimately be more readable to your viewers.
3. Market Research
What are you offering your potential users / customers?
What will they expect from your site?
What do your competitors offer their customers?
How will your site differ in functionality and features?
4. Content
Engage your users – they are only going to remain ‘loyal’ if you provide them with something they find interesting / essential on a regular basis.
5. Stats
Empirical data & split-testing are very useful (invaluable even) when reviewing your site. It would be a wise move to incorporate a stats package (such as Google analytics) into the code of your site, so that you are able to see what your users are doing on your site and which areas will need improvement.
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