Saturday, March 7, 2009

The Basics Of Website Design

By Bruce Willis

Optimal performance is the number one priority in any website design. The existence of large, slow loading flash files on some website shows that some webmaster do not require the basic understanding if what constitutes an optimally designed website.

To help you remember the rules for effective website design, here are five basic rules.

1) Wherever possible, avoid the inclusion of a splash page. The first pages of a website that consists of dazzling fancy displays are the splash pages. These are elaborately fancy pages with lavish designs and images along with words such as "welcome to our website" Usually, they are pages of elaborate graphics that includes words such as "welcome" or "click here to enter the site". The unfortunate thing is splash pages actually takes away attention from the real purpose of the website, and often frustrates users with their slow loading time. This fanciful addition only serves to confuse the visitor who will likely leave your website immediately if loading time takes too long.

2) Reduce the number of banners on your site. These are usually large adverts placed at the top of the web page but can also be at the bottom too. Blatant ads such as banners tend to be regarded as being less credible and it is a total waste of website space Web surfers tend to ignore such banner ads so adding them would only mean a waste of virtual real estate space. A better solution would be to add useful web contents and weave affiliate links artfully into them.

3) Keep it simple. The navigation should be made very simple that even a young child can manage to find their way around. It is good to leave out any fancy flash menus or even multi-tiered drop down menus, they only serve to make navigating the site harder. There are so many websites competing for attention, if your menus make it difficult for them, they will leave. It is good in any website design to include a sitemap to help them find what they are looking for.

4) Make it clear to the visitor where they are. Give them a clear view of where they are now and how to get to where they want to be. This way, they can head to the right information they are looking for. This can be achieved by making sure that each page has its own title and some form of trail that shows them which links they have been to and which is new for them. Don't confuse your visitors because confusion means they will leave!

5) Do consider the need to include audio in you website. If your visitor is going to stay a long time at your site, reading your content, you will want to make sure they're not annoyed by some audio looping on and on at your website. Whenever you decide to use sound, be sure not to let it loop continuously because this a huge cause of irritation to people browsing sites. When adding audio to your website, make sure to include some form of user control that allows them to mute or lower the sound as required. If you diligently apply these website design tips, you will be rewarded with retuning visitors again and again to your website.

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