Web design is an important part of any website. Good web design can invite first time visitors to have a look around while bad web design will cause your visitors to leave before the page has even fully loaded. Bad web design casts a pall over your web site so it is important to pay attention to the three basic elements of web design.
Appearance, Content and Navigation
The basic elements of web design include appearance, content and navigation. A good website has been designed so that each of these elements is given careful attention. In a good website, you cannot have one without the other. For instance, a site may have good content but if a reader is not able to navigate clearly around the site, the reader will not be able to enjoy the content.
First Impressions Count
Appearance: The appearance of your site should be coordinated so that whenever a reader lands on one of your pages, the page is uniformly designed to resemble the other pages. This tells the reader that they are still on the same site. Text, images and multimedia should all be skilfully placed so that they are not competing with each other on the page, instead the eye should travel around the page because the page re presents a whole idea not an assembled mishmash of things that seem to be placed haphazardly. White space should be used to create order on the site. Text should not be cramped onto the page and images should be kept to about 200 x 200 pixels. Many readers will leave a site if there are too many images or if the images are too large. A site should look professional so the reader will have faith in its content.
Content is King
Content: There is a saying that “content is king”. This means that without good content, your site cannot hold a reader’s interest and your visitors who do pop by will probably not be returning. Your content should be original and well written. Your content should be directly related to your website and should be well researched. You could have only one website with one page but if it has good content that is interesting and reliable, you will have more success with it than you would have with two sites filled with spam.
Steering the Boat should be Easy
Navigation: The ease with which a visitor can move around your site is directly related to navigation. Your navigation buttons, tabs and links should be easy to understand with a link back home on each page. Your navigation links should be placed in the same spot on each page so a reader knows how to get around on your site no matter which page the person visits. Many people also enjoy using a site map for seeing at a quick glance all of the content that is available on a web site.
By paying careful attention to the design of your website, your website will be inviting to visitors and will bring you the right sort of attention.