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Whether you're an experienced web designer or a hobbyist, there are plenty of web design tips to help make the most out of any project. Taking advantage of these tips makes your site much easier to manage and navigate - not only for visitors but also for the designer.
10. Know your audience
When designing a website you should always make sure you know your intended audience. Do a bit of research - see what your competitors are doing. This will help you design a website that won’t need to be redesigned several months down the track.
9. Easy navigation
It is vital to make sure your website is easy to navigate - To achieve this you will need to work on a sitemap of the website before you start the design process. Making your website easy to navigate will assist your visitors in moving from page to page, hopefully capturing their attention for just that little longer.
8. Make sure your design is consistent
Making sure your website has a consistent design is important, not only for branding your site but also for ease-of-use and uniformed. Even when changing the layout from one section to another make sure the design stays consistent.
7. Provide search functionality
It is vital for content-rich sites to provide a search feature for visitors. Some people would say that this can be categorised under “Easy Navigation”, but I believe this is more important as it assists in website navigation and functionality.
6. Make your site accessible
Flash is cool and so is AJAX. But if you are planning on adding dynamic elements to your website you should always make sure it is still accessible in text or HTML format. Not the fancy stuff, just the content and text. Make sure there is always a text version of your site for visitors and for the search engines - otherwise you might find yourself losing visitors.
5. Have a design plan
Always have a design plan. Always have a design plan. Always have a design plan. Always have a design plan. Always have a design plan. Did I mention, always have a design plan? I can’t stress this enough.
4. Give low bandwidth alternatives
This isn’t as necessary these days as it was a few years ago. But video and audio should always be optional for those with slower internet connections (trust me, they still exist!)
3. Check the main-stream browsers
Make sure your site works in all of the main-stream browsers, including: Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera . With the recent release of Safari on Windows there’s now no excuse, get your website working on Safari (in most cases it will actually look nicer when you get it right). If possible, check your website on older browser versions as well.
2. Be different, be unique – but not abstract
Make sure your site stands out, make sure it is unique and memorable. But whatever you do, don’t make your site so unique that it requires a Computer Science degree to work out. Try to keep to the standards of the internet (underlined or defined links, proper contrast)
1. Have fun!
Not surprisingly, this is number 1. Be sure to have fun when designing your website. If it becomes a chore or a bore your visitors will pick up on this. A inspirational design comes from passionate designers.
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