subject: Tips And Tricks Every Web Designer Should Know [print this page] When people design a website, they often forget to include a link to their homepage on their secondary pages. If you do not have a homepage link then your visitors may never be able to get back to the main part of your site. This article contains a number of tips on how to properly add a homepage link, so your visitors can always find a way home!
Web designers would be wise to seek out potential target audience members and get their input on the site you are building. This is a great way to improve upon your site, as their views and ideas might be shared by many who will end up visiting the site.
Where you can, recycle certain pieces of your site like navigation bars and logos. Not only does this help with creating some sort of brand consistency to your website, it also helps speed up the page load times for your visitors. Web browsers will cache these pieces upon first load, making them quicker to reappear the next time they are found on a page.
Avoid adding too much content on your page that will make your site lag which can deter people from coming back to your site. You want people to have the feeling of wanting to come back to your site, not the other way around. So be sure to check your site from time to time to make sure what you add isn't lagging it up.
Include your contact information on each and every page of your site. It can be quite frustrating for a viewer to try to dig through all of your content to find a contact link if they come across an issue or have a problem with your site. You just need a simple contact link at the top or bottom of each page.
Do not use blinking, scrolling text or other animations. Also, steer clear of sounds or music that plays automatically. All of these things are distracting to users and provide nothing of value. In addition, connection speeds vary from one site visitor to the next, and everyone does not have the same speed. Those users with slower connections will resent the slow-loading elements of your site.
Task based usability tests are a great way to determine how effective the design of your website is. In general, the purpose of the tasks is to locate some information or functionality that is buried in your website. If your website is well designed, the user should have no difficulty completing the task. On the other hand, if it is not, the task can give you some insight as to which areas of your website could use improvement.
Make sure to add a 'home' link on each webpage. The visitors who look at your website will find it easier to use and more satisfying if you invest some care in the design process. Use the advice from this informative guide and try new things to create an effective website.