subject: 8 Little Design Touches To Improve Your Website [print this page] Website design isn't always about the big, impressive things like animated intros and bold new logos. In fact, the little details can be just as important to the success of your site.
Here are eight ideas which, if used the right way, can improve your website. Some take less than 30 minutes to implement...
Customise your error messages
Who says that all error messages have to be written in dull, technical language? So many sites have pages that pop up with messages like Error 401 Page Not Found.
Do you think your average visitor knows or cares what a 401 message is? Instead, personalise your error pages. Make them friendly and clear. Let people know that something went wrong, but offer easy advice on how to return to the previous page or homepage.
Make the logo clickable
Click logo, return to the homepage. That's just something that most users expect. If your logo doesn't do that, add a simple line of code and make your visitors just a little bit happier.
Tell people where they are
Consider using breadcrumbs. This is a simple form of navigation that usually sits somewhere between the bottom of the main header and the top of the page content.
As the name suggests, breadcrumbs leave a little trail showing where you are in the site. For example, the trail might read:
Home --> Special Offers --> Electrical Offers --> iPods --> Nano
That means the user is on the iPod Nano page. Yet, by glancing at the breadcrumbs they know they can click back to the electrical offers page for more general information.
Have a Favicon
The favicon is the tiny symbol that sits in the URL bar, usually to the left of the URL itself. It's often a scaled down version of the site logo.
A favicon is an extra bit of branding for your site.
But, favicons also show up in bookmark lists. It helps users who've bookmarked your page to find you quicker in a list of pages.
Make contacting you easy
Don't make users search for your contact details whenever they want to get in touch or find out where you're based. Put a clear contact link on every page, including in your main navigation bar.
Allow a little whitespace
Hectic design tires the eye.
Allowing whitespace here and there gives visitors room to rest and focus on more important details. After all, if everything is emphasised, then nothing is important. Of course, whitespace doesn't actually have to be white, just empty.
Try leaving extra gaps between your header and main content, or removing a quarter of the copy on every page.
Choose a clear font
Some fonts just don't work well online. Many serif fonts like Times Roman and Garamond are too compact and decorative.
Use wide, open fonts like Verdana, Arial and Tahoma in at least 12 point size. More people can read them at all resolutions. You'll stop straining your visitor's eyes.
Put useful stuff in the footer
Avoid filling your footer solely with links that exist for the search engines and not for the user. While links are important for search engine optimisation, consider at least adding clear Home and Contact links in the footer. Your users will appreciate it.
