subject: Designing A Great Looking Site [print this page] All great art depends on having every necessary component in place and nothing, not one thing that you don't need there. Great authors don't add extraneous characters or pad its plot lines. Great paintings don't have extra brush strokes or colours thrown in for no valid reason. When you're looking at the art of Web design, strive for that kind of purity.
Appealing to your audience
The audience (the visitors you hope to attract to your site) determines the content. To set some basic limits, think of these visitors as being in three groups, at a beginning, an intermediate, or an advanced level, and gauge your content accordingly. If you're providing advanced content at a beginning audience or vice versa, you're looking at failure from the word go. Not only does your audience determine your content, but its preferences influence your visual-design requirements as well. If your audience consists of high-school students whose interests revolve mainly around the latest musical groups, you need a far different look than if it consists of retired naval officers who want to know about international events. For the young music lovers, for example, you need to strike a tone that's light hearted and exciting, both in your words and graphics. Brighter colours and a more relaxed and informal tone, (for the text) is the call here. For the older audience, though, you need to take a heavier approach, with darker, duller colours and a more formal approach to language.
Whatever the group you're aiming for, ask yourself the following questions:
How do they communicate with one another?
Hockey players don't communicate quite the same way as cartographers do. What's the level and style of language they use in the group? Do its members have a particular jargon, slang, or regional dialect? If so, can you use it comfortably and correctly?
What kind and colour of clothes do they wear?
This kind of information tells you volumes about their preferences. People who are willing to wear suits and ties in midsummer don't think the same way as those who prefer casual clothing. The colours they wear also indicate the colour ranges they're likely to feel comfortable with on your site.
What's their worldview?
For many people, the world consists of their house or flat; the road between it and their workplace; their office, or factory floor; and a couple of restaurants somewhere along that path. For others, the world consists only of Wall Street and the Asian financial markets. For some, the world is a series of airports, mobile phones, and e-mails. Anything that exists outside your audience's worldview is invisible to them and probably doesn't belong on your Web site. Find out all that you can, from what kind of cars your visitors drive to the hours they wake and sleep. Any kind of information that you can nail down about your audience and their lives helps you to understand them, and that understanding can't help but improve your site's appeal.
