Secrets to Successful Web Design

A website with an effective design along with concrete content is essentially required. Successful web sites are “user friendly,” allowing valuable information to be obtained easily by the user. The brand image and easy navigation for the user must be observed with utmost priority.




Important factors to keep in mind while designing an effective and successful web design is as follows:




Theme:




An important element for any website is the selection of an appropriate theme. The theme of the website has to be organized to fulfill both the client's requests and provide a useful template for effective illustrations, links and content presentation.




Navigation:




The navigation of a website has to be kept simple and clearly visible. Once the theme is finalized, the second aspect is to create effective navigation. All the links have to be properly arranged and presented as related to the theme. The visitor should find the navigation transparent in order to access the information, get the clear message and utilize any help from the site.




Content:




The website cannot be complete without effective content. While designing a website, it is important to ensure the content of the site is clear, crisp and simple for a visitor to have quick access to information on the product or offerings. Simple and effective content can generate more business and can increase search ranking. Adding new content continually gives the user a reason to keep coming back and visiting the site.




Clicks:




The number of clicks from the main page to any other page of the website should ideally be four. This would help the visitor access the site because the entry to the website may be on a secondary page rather than the main page of the site.




Grammar:




A constant check of the grammatical errors in the site is also very important. Having silly or acute grammatical errors may give visitors an impression the organization is unprofessional and unreliable.






Contact Information




An effective business relationship can be a key to success. Contact information should be posted on each page of the site and should be updated constantly. Another important aspect for establishing business relationships, is to reply to all suggestions and comments within two working days.




Product Information:




In order to generate potential customers, it is necessary to have any product information specifically expressed on the main page of the site. An effective snapshot along with correct information is essential, as it may get the customer glued to the site.




Animations:




In order to avoid distracting the user, a minimum use of animated graphics is suggested. Overuse of animation takes extra time for the page to load and may give an unprofessional look.




Be cautious when selecting your background and text colors. Busy backgrounds make text difficult to read and draw the attention away from the text. Always be consistent with your background and theme on each page of your site. Your site should be nicely organized and uniform throughout. Keep in mind, colors affect your mood and will have an effect on your visitors as well. Bright colors such as yellow and orange, cause you to become more cheerful or happy, while colors such as blue and purple have a calming effect. Dark colors such as brown and black have a depressing effect. A good rule of thumb would be to use colors based upon the type of effect you're trying to create.




Colors:




The selection of colors is an important aspect of the site design as it attracts the readers attention to the text. The color selections to keep in mind are; orange and yellow make you feel happy and cheerful, blue and purple create a calming effect while dark colors such as brown and black generate depressing effects.




The main page of your web site should load in 8 seconds or less with a 56K modem. According to two recent surveys, conducted by Forrester Research and Gartner Group, ecommerce sites are losing $1.1 to $1.3 billion in revenue each year due to customers click- away caused by slow loading sites. If a page takes too long to load, your potential customer will not wait. Ultimately costing you business.




Main Page:




The most important aspect in the Internet industry is loading speeds. The main page of the site should be able to load in 8 seconds or less with a 56K modem. A longer wait to the potential customer might cost business.




By following the above mentioned details, an effective and successful website can be designed. One of the most important aspects of the Internet industry and its business is the website. It may also be termed as the organization's face on line.