A website is a collection of electronic documents and applications that reside on a Web server(s) and present content and interactive features to the end user in the form of web pages. Web design is a kind of graphic design for the development and styling of objects of the Internet’s information environment to produce high end consumer features website is crucial for commercial entities as a form of advertising medium that is interactive giving consumers instant access to a depth of information upon which they can base their purchasing choices.
A well-designed website integrates the following key concepts: Content, Usability, Appearance and Visibility.
Content relates to the substance and information on the site and good content is a crucial aspect of successful website design. This information should be industry specific, clear, simple and relevant to the target audience. To design a website that is readable and easy to scan, the content should be formatted with page breaks and headers between major ideas and paragraphs, with bold type, color or lists to emphasize product characteristics. Using text inside images should be avoided when designing a website and where used each image should have a title and descriptive attribute.
To ensure that you design a user friendly website, keep the navigation system simple and reliable. It should also be consistent, appearing in the same place on every page with the same format. Use appropriate text inside links to clarify each link’s destination designing a user friendly website also requires you to emphasize text links and to include inside the main navigation system: a home page link, a text based map for large or complex sites and a site map box.
To design a professional, appealing and relevant site, the appearance of graphics, text colors, typefaces and page layout should include a single style flow that is consistent. The custom error page should reflect the site’s overall color, type and layout structure and provide useful links to allow for easier navigation. Consider browser compatibility as web pages can look different through different browsers. The visibility of a website relates to its market reach and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) gives a site web presence.
Some of the key factors to consider in creating a search engine friendly website include adding text to your images, flash and videos and validating your HTML code. HTML validation is critical in website design because errors on the HTML code will negate portions of your web pages on the search engine’s database. Creating relevant title tags, using HTML navigation links on your webpage and eliminating content duplication all help in the design of an effective website.
Designing an effective website must involve a maintenance plan whose focus is to keep the site current, coherent, accessible, appealing, secure, cost effective and aligned with the goals of the website. Following these principles in website design will ensure that the website conforms to user expectations, making visitors comfortable and apt to visit again and recommend the site.