Your appearance is the first thing people see when they meet you for the first time. With all your best inner qualities you are very unlikely to make a positive impression if you are untidily dressed and demonstrate bad taste. The same applies to web design. Your web site is a face of your company, the face you present to the Internet users, and they get the first impression of it the first seconds they load it in their browsers.
Even the most interesting and useful content of your site will not get your potential clients interested if not supported by attractive design. A lot sites get lost in the endless Internet sea of information because they do not attract visitors' attention from the first seconds they see it. So, even though attractive design does not guarantee 100% success of your web page, but it increases your chances essentially. What are the components of the notion of "good web design"? Here are some tips which can help you to get closer to the ideal.
- Think about potential clients, not about surprising your competitors while planning your site! Modern innovations can be interesting to watch and make your competitors envy, but they will make your page less functional for clients' use.
- It is not possible to satisfy the requirements of everyone. Think about the target group your site is designed for. Age, sex, interests, occupations of your potential visitors must influence not only the content but also the way it looks. Keep in mind the information you are going to place on your site.
- It is necessary to remember the rule of 13 seconds. If your home page does not load in the first 13 seconds it was clicked on the visitor is very unlikely to wait. Save larger images for other pages and make the home page loaded quickly and easily. The normal size of the first page should not exceed 50 K.
- Remember about different browsers! The visitors of your site not necessarily use the same browser as you, so certain design features may look poor or do not appear at all in other browsers.
- Keep in mind the quality of the graphics you use! Nice graphics serve to improve the look of your site. Use special programs, such as PhotoShop, Corel or Image Composer to create professional, high quality graphics.
- Change with the changes! Web is a dynamic structure which changes every day, if not every hour, and do not miss interesting scripts or graphic tools which could attract new visitors to your site. Your clients will be happy to see that you care about your main marketing tool - your site.
- Combine good looks with usability. Make your site not only attractive to look at, but also easy to navigate. Make sure all links and hyperlinks are valid and there are no dead pages that lead visitors to nowhere. Low usability annoys visitors, which, naturally, does not add popularity to your site.
These rules can help in making your web site design better and make the site attractive for customers. Of course, to hold your visitors and make them come back and use your service and buy your products you must take care about the content of your site also. Good first impression is a half way to success and good design can help you with that. The success of your web project depends on yourself.