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If Content is King who is Queen?
It's been said again and again, when it comes to getting people to visit your site (and stay there for more than 5 seconds), the quality of your content rules supreme. But once you've bowed to interest, saluted relevance and kow-towed to originality, who else must you pay homage to for recognition in the court of website stickiness?
The two jewels in the crown of Presentation, for it is of course Presentation who is Queen, are structure and graphical design. Let's take a very brief look at them both.
Structure We're interested here in how you order the contents of your site, in how you link the different components and sections together. Your objective is to make the experience of browsing your site as straightforward as possible for your visitors.
So how do you go about achieving a clear, intuitive structure? For larger more complicated sites it helps to draw a chart of all the pages, showing how they connect to each other (this process isn't such a bad idea for smaller sites either). Try and keep everything logical and stick to the '3 click rule' as much as possible. (The '3 click rule' - a user shouldn't have to click more than 3 times to get to a page).
Once you've worked out a logical site structure, the basis for your navigation system should pop out. Don't go and spoil it all by using a fancy (usually Flash) navigation system that's frustratingly difficult to work out!
Graphical design What you do with your design is generally down to personal taste and branding requirements. Take a look on the Internet and you'll see successful designs from the extremely detailed to the minimalist.
Note that whilst people will say 'but look at Google' to justify a plain (ugly!) design, well chosen colour schemes and visual interest will give your site a positive boost.
No matter what style you go for, there are some rules that will always apply:
- Be consistent, the look shouldn't change across the site
- Busy backgrounds hardly ever work
- Take it easy on the flashing ads and graphics
- Watch out for clashing colours
- Dark text on light backgrounds work best
- The fewer fonts and text colours there are, the better
- Use high quality images and graphics
Logical structure and pleasing design make for intuitive navigation and an easier more enjoyable browsing experience. With just a little thought you'll be rewarded with visitors who pay more attention to your content and not the pain and effort needed to get to it.
Trevor Lewis has over 10 years in the Software Industry. He is currently a Senior Consultant at EMNM. EMNM offer a range of new media design services including multimedia presentations and website design.
What to Ask Your Web Designer
If you need a web designer, but have no clue about the typical web design process, I am quite certain that you must be feeling a bit overwhelmed about what to expect. As web designers, we oftentimes have a myriad of roles to fill when working with their clients, but as the client, you always have a right to know the complete design process up front. Let's talk a bit about what questions you may want to ask a potential design firm before they get started on your website.
Increase Sales on Your Website! Use Graphics!
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Web Publishing Guide for the Beginning Entrepreneur (Part 1)
The best things don't come easy. - Quoted
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Creating Quality Websites
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How To Shop for a Web Design Firm?
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There are literally thousands of different options, styles and formats to choose from when designing your service professional business website. But there are 5 things every site needs to be successful:
Keep Your Navigation Consistent!
One of the single most important aspects of effective navigation is consistency. Why? There's a simple reason.
Effective Website Design
In this era of ultra-sophisticated internet marketing and web design, there is no excuse for an e-business to suffer with an ineffective website. Whether your goal is to present a basic business website that briefly introduces and describes your company and product, or you endeavor to develop a fully-functioning cash-cow storefront, there is a wide array of design choices to cater to all of your needs. Your website should fit your business like a well-tailored Armani suit. It should reflect exactly who you are and at the same time, instill confidence in the potential buyer that your business is solid, stable and reliable.
Leave Those Links Blue!
Don't mess with those links! When you're designing your site, you should leave your text links in their natural state--blue and underlined. We all want to be creative and not do the bland, expected, normal thing. We want to change our links to red, green, yellow, even black--anything but blue. And we have the urge to take off those underlines.
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Web Site Turn Ons
When you develop a sales brochure, you have a mental checklist of what needs to be in it. You probably look at brochures from other vendors. You get advice from friends and colleagues. You probably also notice the sales flyers you get in the mail. What do you notice? What gets your attention?
A Website Checklist
If you've just finished building your new website (or revamping your old one), how can you be sure it's "ready for prime time"? Or maybe your site's been around for awhile and you think it may be due for a makeover. Because Web technologies, techniques and standards change so rapidly, even a website that seems "cutting edge" when it's built can look obsolete a year later. Or maybe you started out with a barebones website and finally have the time and/or money to take it to the next level. If you'd to give your website the once over, here are ten aspects you should consider:
Color and Web Design
Color is one of the most important but least understood elements of web design today. Whether they know it or not, visitors to a site respond to colors and other visual elements on the site on a psychological level. Color affects the emotion of the audience, and emotion drives decision-making. An intrigued visitor is more likely to engage in the goal of your site -- whether it is meant to inform, entertain, or to sell products or services. If the colors are unsuitable, the eye will reject the site and your product may be rejected too, no matter how good it is. A well-considered color scheme is frequently the difference between an okay web site and a great web site. It can also make a site unusable if the scheme used is too outrageous and hard on the eye.
Custom Web Site Design Strategies
Web site design has certainly, in the past decade, evolved tremendously. More clients now are demanding custom design, as opposed to the 'cookie cutter' sites of yesteryear.
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10 Reasons Why You Need A Multilingual Website
The internet continues to grow and has become the default point of call for businesses and individuals searching for goods, services or information. For businesses wishing to get that competitive advantage, a multilingual website now presents one of the most high impact means of expanding a client base and securing greater sales volumes.