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If you are going to make a website for yourself and your dear mother-in-law and thus show everything you have learned during your web design courses – you'd better never read these notes.
Wiktionary, a wiki-based Open Content dictionary, defines web design as “the creation of web pages, especially in terms of layout and presentation rather than functionality”. It plays the same role for a website as print design and makeup for a paper edition. Web design is quite often understood as something more than plain creation of graphic elements for a website; it may include projecting of the site structure and navigation, sometimes even adjustment of the CMS necessary for functioning of the site – simply speaking, development of the whole site. As far as reasonable arrangement of a website is concerned, a convenient design is much more important than a “pretty” one.
So let us consider that website design is developed first of all for visitors (customers, clients). Therefore all its elements should be unobtrusive. Design elements should not distract from the text; an ideal variant is when they draw the readers' attention to the most important and necessary information.
In this article we will discuss the most general requirements for website design. Next articles will be devoted to details: color, font, animation, flash etc. Some articles might seem “baby talk” and “tips for dummies” to readers who are already well-versed in the Internet. We want to remind them that repetition is the mother of learning. So let us consider the main requirements for website design once more.
Speed of page load
Statistical information (March 2008) runs: if a site loads more that 10 seconds, 90% of users leave it. It is known that the speed of page load is directly connected with the “weight” of a page (a competently developed web page should not have size which is more that 100 Kb). Images have the largest size among all elements of a web file.
You have surely come across websites with such cumbersome illustrations that you had enough time to read the text of a page up to the end while the images were still loading. Therefore while developing website design you should select only “light” images which will load simultaneously with the texts or just a bit later. 20 Kb is considered maximal weight for a large image, and 5 Kb is considered maximal weight for a small image.
As far as the number of images on a page is concerned, web designers have to find “the golden mean”. Too many images disturb visitors because they prevent from searching and reading necessary text. On the other hand, solid texts with no illustrations at all are boring and monotonous. Frankly speaking, we all have got accustomed to picture books since childhood! Optimal number of images on a web page is no less that 2 and no more that 4 images – it is considered the “proper form”. Please, pay attention – in this case regular elements of design are not included into the total number images; we mean only illustrations which accompany the text.
 Color gamma of a site
Design of a site should be developed in no less that two and no more that 3 colors. We will tell about existing techniques of color selection for a website separately – it is a vast and very important topic. In this article we will pay attention to the fact that you should take into account how different colors are perceived by our eyesight. For instance, green color is the most favorable, and red color – vice versa).
Background and text
Websites with white text background and black font color are considered the most professional. If the background is not white it should be almost transparent, and the text should be very dark and contrast with the background. Such combinations as “white text – black background”, “yellow text – blue background” are strictly forbidden! Firstly, such combinations tire the user's eyes, and he leaves such website. Secondly, all Internet users are accustomed to read black text on white background. Do not try to retrain your clients – it is unpromising and unprofitable.
Buttons (main menu items)
There are two main ways to make menu items: to write them as common text links and to make them in the form of images. If you choose the second way, you should by no means make them look as advertising banners. Why? There exists such phenomenon as “banner blindness” which makes Internet users ignore banner-like information. Therefore users will not notice menu items and click on them; they will not explore your website further.
Main page of a site
Main page should contain brief and clear information: the subject sphere of the site, sort of annotation. It should arrest the visitors' attention; abundant and bright elements of design prevent the main page from doing it. Analyze the statistics: if more than 50% of visitors leave the main page without reading other materials, it is incorrectly arranged.
Main page should have certain intrigue which will motivate the users to explore your website further.
It is recommended that the size of the main page coincide with the size of browser window. If you cannot provide it, you should put the most important information above. Horizontal scroll bar is strongly unacceptable!
Enter page is also not necessary at all – it is a door which has nothing behind. According to the statistics, 90% of users leaves websites with an enter page at once.
Website navigation
Navigation section must include a link which leads to the section about the authors or owners of the site in a conspicuous place – it is generally accepted. Author's section contains information about the company and its contacts.
Link to the feedback form should also be placed in a conspicuous place. You can call it “Write to Us!”, “Contacts”, “Feedback” etc.
In general, navigation of a site should be simple and comprehensible even for the least experienced users (do not forget about the three-click rule!). Names of menu sections should strictly correspond to the content of the texts.
Frame
Fortunately, frame-based websites are becoming a thing of the past. However, there are some devotees of “quick and cheap” website development. Why are frames so bad?
First of all, traditional use of frames (making navigation menu a separate file) makes website design crude and ungraceful. Secondly, search robots perceive a frame-based website as a site made of one page and extremely rarely follow the links to internal files.
Thirdly, users often get confused what page of the site they are on because all pages of frame-based websites have the same domain name.
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By and large, flash is acceptable only for those sites which are devoted to flash. In all over cases its use is unreasonable: it is “heavy”, it distracts attention from navigation and content, it disturbs users. The best way to say goodbye to the sales from your site is to put flash on it just to show how cool you can do it. This rule has no exceptions but one: if your website is devoted to flash animation and sells your services in this area, you can and should use flash.
Music
If the client or the author of the site has some reasons to put music on his web page, he should keep in mind, that the musical file must not load automatically. Just imagine such situation: a visitor opens your site at work, and a pop group starts yelling at full blast. Or even better: a visitor enters your website late at night – and the whole house that has just fallen asleep resounds with cheerful music. Will he enter such website once more? Especially if he could not turn off the music and had to listen to “kind commentaries” of his household or even neighbors whom he has woken up. Therefore if you cannot do without music on your website at all, give your visitors an opportunity to turn the tune on and off themselves.
Website testing
As your website is going to be visited by people who use different browsers and display resolutions, the process of web design development includes obligatory testing of the site. It will show if the site looks equally well in Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, at 1024x768 and 1088x612 resolutions etc (cross-browser compatibility).
You should also remember, that different displays render the colors in different ways. For instance, web design of your site is performed in purple and golden colors and looks magnificent on your own display. And at the same time your neighbor will see a dirty pink website with yellow-green fragments on his display.
That is why when you select colors for the site it is highly recommended to view your layouts on the biggest possible number of displays. Try to choose the color gamma which will be the least liable to distortion.
To sum everything up we would like to remind that the ultimate aim of a commercial website is to attract visitors, to increase CTR (click-through rate, or conversion of visitors into clients). To reach this aim the site should be stylish, rational and as convenient for users as possible (usability). TAGS
web design,
website beauty,
website convenience,
load speed,
color gamma,
website navigation,
flash,
website testing,
usability,
conversion,
stylish website design,
rational web design,
easy-to-use site |
web design 
