subject: Various different Points Of Design Elements In A Website [print this page] Various different Points Of Design Elements In A Website
You may not realize it but there are various varied elements that go into making an excellent web design, a number of them are straightforward, like the selection of colors and graphics. Others are not so straight forward and relate more to the way the visitor will interact with your internet site. Many of these are essential though given that they all work together and give rise to the overall user experience of people visiting your website.
Let's take a review of some aspects of web design style and a short description of each.
1. Usability
Usability is related to how people will connect to your website and is mostly related to navigation and layout. Even though a large number of business owners or site owners might want to have a design that is 'out of the box' or 'very original', it has to be appreciated that standard navigation structures and website designs provide new visitors to your site with built-in rules of thumb regarding how to utilize the site. They do not need to work out arcane or unknown menu systems in an attempt to navigate your site. Boring, in a lot of cases, is really better!
2. Visual aspects
This relates to the visual elements and hues used on your site. Keep in mind that colours and artwork should fit in with your website's target market as well as your market industry. It might seem obvious however it is surprising how many business people may want to use a font such as Comic Sans Serif on a corporate focused site, as well as 'enliven' their site with poor quality graphics or horrors! Clip art! Images and colours should fit the aim of the website.
3. Structure
The structure of the website refers to how data is grouped together. Is the whole site structured as one flat design or do you have obvious categories to group your information for example your services and products together? It is advisable to have more structure on the site instead of a number of services and products all floating around in some jumble on your site. People like structure and careful thought must be given to designing the information of one's site so that it makes structural sense to your visitors.
4. Functionality
This describes capabilities that enable your web site visitors to interact with your website and yourself in a significant manner. The idea of Web 2.0 not only encompasses the element of web design but also of functionality for example RSS feeds, posting comments, forums, blogging, surveys plus more features to enable your visitors to give feedback or take part in groups. Technologies such as Open Source Content Management programs (for example Joomla and Wordpress) easily enable these, as opposed to your site constructed in something like Dreamweaver or out-of-date WYSIWYG editors for example Frontpage or Publisher.
As you can see, there are many factors to bear in mind when designing your website so that it enhances the user experience and promote your organization in the right way by building the overall branding and business representation of your website.
