Good web design incorporates six basic concepts:
Use a planning document
A good planning document will list primary keywords, navigational
structure, basic content, and really organize the design
process. Research your keywords using the Overture
keyword tool, and determine related keywords you might
have missed. Organize this list of keywords, in a logical
fashion, for real visitors. This will be your working navigational
scheme. More about planning
documents here.
Make it easy to view and read
You should use a typeface which is easy on the eyes. There
are actually typefaces designed for computer viewing, Arial
and Verdana. Use them. They are default on all computers
and browsers, so you know that the visitor will have them
available. Utilize CSS to make sure
that you incorporate your chosen typeface throughout your
site. Make sure to use a readable text color and background,
like black text on white background. For more information
on typeface/background colors click
here.
Make it easy to navigate
Use your keyword list to develop a navigational scheme.
Your home page is the top level page. Under that are second
level pages, based upon monthly searches, with the high
volume searches at the top of the list. Third level pages
will be sub catagories of the second level pages. Sort of
like a theme pyramid. Make sure your scheme is intuitive,
and easy to understand. For more information on theme pyramids,
visit WebmasterWorld
Make it easy for visitors to find what they want
People come to your site trying to find answers to their
questions, or information on a subject they are interested
in. They will only spend a few seconds trying to make sense
of your site. Make it easy for them. Make it obvious what
your site is about, and where they go to find the information
they want. In the words of Steve
Krug, "Don't Make Me Think". For more information
on making your site user friendly, view our User
Friendly Design Guide.
Use consistent layout and design elements
What type of audience do you have? Are they more visual,
like artists, or more informational, like engineers. You
must present most of the content in your site with text,
but your audience should dictate how many graphic elements
to include in your layout, within limits.You should balance
your graphic elements with large doses of text elements,
to avoid unwieldy page size. Remember, the faster loading
sites tend to do better.
Use style sheets, to ensure consistent display of text
accross different browsers, and speed up page loading times.
Use your home page as a template (using the same basic images
on all your pages) to help subsequent pages load faster.
Remember to process all graphic images, using compression,
to reduce file size. This can have a huge effect on a page's
load times.
Make quick loading pages with minimal coding errors
When pages load slowly, visitors and search engine crawlers
both leave. Get rid of huge graphic image files and bloated
html code. Compress images, use CSS, and validate all your
pages before you go public with your site. Test your index
page first, then use that as a template for the rest of
your site. You can test page load times here,
and check for W3C compliance here.
Work on both until you have page load times under 8 seconds
on a 56K modem, and error free coding. HTML
coding help here.
