The effective design is this one, which is maximum simplified, conformable to
your users because they are your main purpose. This one, simply and clearly
announcing what is your website about. This one, quickly offering the users
exactly what they are expecting to see on your pages without being troubled with
insignificant information. The big mistake made by lots of web designers is to
project their activities from their own point of view, without thinking about
user.



Factors, damaging the website design effectiveness



• Additional time needed for website downloading

• Badly written content

• Complex design, abundant in elements

• Difficult navigation, incomprehensible for user

• No validated program language



Additional time needed for website downloading



Your pages downloading time is extremely important. Your users will shut your
website down very quickly if you make them wait more because of your slowly
downloading pages. The other sites are on a mouse click away from them.

• Not important if you are talking about graphics, multimedia, scripts, applets
- be cautious about their location on your site. Don't put them without judging
their position, just because you or your designer had an idea about it. Design
them small-sized, too.



Badly written content



The text that is ready for print has nothing to do with the text for the Web.
According to Jacob Nielsen, Web usability guru, users have more difficulties in
reading the information on computers rather than on printed editions. They
rather scan it than read it profoundly. Huge text blocks are unreadable and
couldn't allow them to do it. Means to make text more readable and effective
could be effectuated by using:



• separate paragraphs

• titles

• subtitles

• indentations

• bullets

• bolds

• hyperlinks

• different fonts and sizes



Complex design, abundant in elements



• Don't complicate users work by complex and abundant design making the website
not to be clear in terms of its downloading and its appearance on their screens.

• Avoid frames. They could seriously damage your website usability.

• Having a site, made on FLASH you can't explain fast and clear to users what
his content is about, what it would be useful with, what they could win, using
your services, because only its downloading will take several minutes. If you
insist however on including FLASH elements, much better variant is to insert
them in a detached small file, with definite size, but inserting it, you have to
possess some clear purpose. It refers much more to your home page, which is your
website main portal.

• Don't leave your pages without comprehensible title tags, clearly explaining
what is your page about (title tag is the page title you see on the top of the
browser).

• Don't leave your site home page without text, explaining to your users who you
are and what you are talking about on your site.



Difficult navigation, incomprehensible for user



• Don't upset user by bad navigation, making him feel lost. He could enter your
site by each of its pages, not only by the home page. If he/she enters by
another one, he/she must understand what is his/her position on your site, where
he/she could go by clicking the corresponding link.

• Don't leave your site without a site map. The site map gives user the
possibility to orientate fast and easy on it.

• Always put on each of your pages a link to the home page plus the firm's name
and logo, making them also a link to the home page.

• Don't allow the existing of a orphaned page, where a user could find lost.

• Don't change the default color of the hyperlinks, because users are expecting
to see them exactly that way. When a text is blue, the user is used to thing it
is a link, and if it is purple, that it is a visited link. The different colors
from the default ones will throw them into confusion.

• Don't make blue a text that is not a hyperlink. That will also confuse them.

• Don't put a link that leads to the same page, except these that go to other
page sections.



No validated program language



The code your site is written in is validated depending on browsers from
different types and versions.

• Incorrectly written program code will make your site users close it
immediately due to its bad appearing in their browsers.

• The correctly written code is the best way to ensure on your pages the
properly appearing of as more as possible browsers. It includes old versions and
versions that will be published.

 

About the Author:

Veselin Andreev is one of the Svilaves founders - website design and promotion
services, the quality and effect of which are aiming at the successful
development of their clients business. Read the exact details of their services
on the address: http://www.svilaves.com

 

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