Friday, January 30, 2009

Get an Optimal Website Design

By James Hillard

Optimal performance is the number one priority in any website design. One common error found in a web design is the existence of large and heavy files that require tremendous amount of patience on the part of the visitor to actually be able to view it. See how fast this Sydney Intellectual Property web page loads for example.

The following are good website design pointers you should consider whenever you create a site. 1) Splash pages are a bad idea: The first pages of a website that consists of dazzling fancy displays are the splash pages. Made up of pretty designs, they are usually lavish images and graphics with accompanying words such as "welcome to our site" or"click here to enter". They are pages with no purpose, and serves to discourage uses from fully utilizing the actual purpose of the website due to their slow loading time. Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page. Check out this Sydney Intellectual Property web page as an example.

2) Be careful using banners: When banners are displayed on a web page, they are usually right at the top but can frequently be seen located elsewhere, including the foot of the page also. Even the newbie to the internet have trained themselves to ignore banner ads so placing them would only waste precious real estate space. The best way to utilize web space would be to use good contents and weave your affiliate links into them so that the users would not feel coerced into buying.

3) Keep all navigations simple: Keep navigation simple so that the youngest user can use it. Avoid the use of flash menus or multi-tiered menus because generally they are not a good idea as far as easy navigation is concerned. Any form of complicated navigation will cause them to leave your site for good. Have a sitemap added to the website design to help them find what they are looking for.

4) Let it be clear on the user where he is at the moment: You will need to have a sitemap to facilitate the user to be in control. That way, they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site easily. Make sure that every page has its own title and that some form of breadcrumb trail is used to track the visitors step throughout the entire website. Any type of confusion drives your visitors away.

5) Do think carefully about the use of audio in the site: Avoid the use of music if you can. While some music can enhance the experience, even the most beautiful of sounds becomes irritating if it is played continuously. Adding audios may seem cool but provide some form of user control such as muting ability or volume control so that your visitors can adjust accordingly. If you wish for the visitors to return to your site, learn to apply all these website design rules and you can reap the benefits of long term traffic. - 16003

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