In the present era, the Internet
plays an active role in conceptualizing a company’s global image.
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.
Peter Einheuser has been a freelance cartoonist, a journalist and the founder and CEO of Ardis Creative- a Marketing and Advertising agency in USA Florida, fort lauderdale.