subject: What The Best-designed Websites Have In Common With Each Other [print this page] If you do a quick study of a list of the best designed websites in any industry, chances are they wont look very much like each other. Theyll all use different colors and design elements, different layouts and different styles after all, individuality is one of the hallmarks of excellent web design. If you look more closely, though, youll find that they have a great deal in common and those commonalities can help you create a web site thats worthy of a place in any list of best designed websites.
Your websites design plays a large part in its success or failure. The best designed websites are those that start with a plan rather than those that start with a look. Before the building starts, the top website designers analyze the objectives and goals that the company wants to accomplish with their site, then figure out what elements the site needs to accomplish those goals. The visuals, graphics and style all come after the basic bones of the website, making it easy to change and update the look without affecting the underlying functionality of the site itself. That underlying structure is the single most important thing that the top websites have in common but its not the only thing.
Eye Catching and Professional Web Design
While every site on any best designed websites list has a very different look, they all look and feel professional. The design elements and colors work in harmony, the graphics are balanced and it includes easy-to-understand visual cues to make navigation easier and the entire website experience user-friendly. Other elements of web design that contribute to professional appearance include attractive graphics and precision even on websites that appear haphazard, you wont find misaligned edges or graphics obscuring text.
Attention to Detail is a Hallmark of the Best Website Designs
That level of attention to detail is one of the primary hallmarks of professional web design. It carries through from appearance into the underlying mechanics of the site, including the parts that help attract search engines and the traffic they bring to your site. If you check the source code, youll find all the META tags filled in, keywords defined, image tags on all images and code that conforms to W3C standards for web usability.
Effective Use of Color
Good web site design uses color effectively to convey mood and to help define elements of the design. The overall choice of color scheme is only one part of using color effectively, but it is an important part since your color scheme helps define your business. Bright, bold colors attract attention. Earth tones and distinguished blues and grays are universally recognized as signal of a serious, established business. The ways that colors are used to set off information, menus, comment boxes and other design elements also contribute to the professional look of the best designed websites.
Other elements that help define the best website designs include clean fonts, excellent content and pleasing arrangement of elements on the page. If youre considering a new website design or redesigning your current site to be more effective and eye-catching, sit down with some of your favorite websites and analyze them to see how you can use their elements to put your business site on the best designed websites list.
