subject: Features of Good Web Design [print this page] Features of Good Web Design Features of Good Web Design
If you are considering setting up a website, then all chances are that you will be keen on seeing that the website you start turns out to be a success. And as you will come to discover upon conducting a little research on the subject, one of the keys to having a successful website is proper web design. Web design is about the graphical layout and presentation of content on the website. It is, indeed, one of the things that can make or break a website. It is therefore something that you cannot take lightly.
So, having learnt that one of keys to success on the Internet is effective web design, you could find yourself interested in knowing what, exactly, goes into such good web design. That is what we proceed to explore with you.
For starters, we would have to declare that good web design is that which is aligned with the objectives of the website being designed. Different websites have different objectives. A website could be aimed at informing people about something. Another website could be aimed at trying to get people to purchase something. A different website could be aimed at making possible a particular web-based interaction (like where it serves as an E-learning platform). Effective web design would start with a careful consideration of those objectives, and the development of a proper platform on which the objectives can be achieved is what would be termed as good web design.
Good web design, whatever the objectives it is aimed at, is that which makes for easy navigation.
The client should not have to start frantically searching for stuff within the website. It should be clear, from a glance, where they can find everything they can possibly be in need of from the website. This seems too obvious to state, but the number of web designers who ignore it is simply amazing. Take note that most people on the Internet are impatient, and they won't have the time to start searching for stuff. If they can't find something, they will quickly move on to the next user-friendly website. Of course, this does not mean that you clutter your home page with all manner of links (that could also be off-putting), but rather that you get creative, think on what the visitors are most likely to be looking for and then provide then with strategically placed links to just that (so that they feel as if you are reading their minds).
Good web design is that which makes provisions for easy scalability of the website, and for easy updates to the web pages. Even the so-called static websites have to change some bits of information from time to time, and provisions for how this can be done by non-technical users should be made.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly from a strategic point of view, good web design should result in a website that is search engine friendly. Unknown to many people is the fact that one of the things which affect search engine treatment of websites is how the sites are designed. Good web design should make it easy for the search engine robots to penetrate deep into the web pages in their search for content to index. Also worth keeping in mind is that one of the things that search engines are considering, in ranking websites nowadays is how long people stay on them (which they monitor through cookies that they feed their users). Now if your web design is shoddily done, chances are that people will not stay on your website for long, even after having been directed there by the search engines. The search engines will interpret this to mean that your website is uninteresting, which could see the website pushed further down the search results.
