subject: Interactive Website Design And Accessibility [print this page] - What are people thinking the first time they visit your website and how likely is it that these users will ever revisit your page?
First Impressions
Is this site credible?
Is it trustworthy?
Is this a professional company?
Is this company stable?
Do I feel welcome on this site?
These are the questions you should be asking yourself when designing your website. Design is a very crucial factor when creating a website.
- Tips
Colors: using the right color combinations is key in attracting your audience to select certain elements on your site. However, dont try to make everything jump out, rather you should pick two to four colors for your template and marketing materials.
Media: Avoid redundancy. Only use media and animations to support content rather than be the bulk of the content. Otherwise your site may look unprofessional.
Layout: avoid clutter. Create a grid like navigation structure. Make sure page elements arent randomly scattered.
Typography: Website content development is very important. Website content should be organized grammatically. What does this mean? Content should read from left to right and from top to bottom. Your content should also be on a high school reading level. You dont want to sound like an amateur and at the same time you dont want to confuse your audience because its more than likely not all of them attended college, or can read at college level.
- Consistency
Its important to keep the elements on your website consistent from page to page. Elements include colors, image sizes, fonts, and page layout. There shouldnt be more than three different page layouts on a website: homepage layout, content pages layout, and a layout for a form page.
- Images
Stock photos vs. real images
A marketing experiment was conducted and the results concluded that 95% of people prefer and are more attracted to real imagery rather than stock photos. Most websites use stock photos, however.
- Navigation
Is the information on your website easily accessible? Thats what navigation is about. You need to make your websites pages and content easily accessible and found.
Keep the navigation bar near the top of the page and make it simple.
Include a search box so users can search keywords.
There is such thing as too much! Dont provide too many navigation options.
- Compatibility
Your website must be compatible with multiple browsers as well as mobile friendly.
