BASIC RULES OF WEB SITE DESIGN
by Maggie Barber-Jones
"If you want to compete with the big dogs, you got to get some fleas!"
It's often the mistake of beginners to try and make their site flashy and full of things that move, which makes it way too obvious to the potential customer that the site is not professional. The result? Lost sale.
So how do you design a site that will earn you sales instead of lose it?
1. Tell what your site is all about in the first page.
2. Don't use too much bold and italic letters, and fonts under 10-point size.
3. Under Construction signs died 5 years ago and are seen as almost disrespectful.
4. Stick to fonts every computer has: Times New Romans, Helvetica or Arial. if you don't, the pages will show up really strange and most all of your text will be out of place.
5. Keep every page with one point in mind. Don't confuse your reader.
6. Make it as easy as possible for someone to contact you. Put your phone number address and email on every page.
7. If you have products that you need to be on a secure order form, GET ONE you will lose the sale if you don't.
8. Make sure your design works in both Netscape and Internet Explorer. Too often, beginners build in one and don't check the other.
9. Build your site for a 14" monitor, don't make your customers scroll over and over and forget what they are doing.
10. YOUR WEB SITE DESIGN MUST LOAD IN LESS THAN 10 SECONDS. All too often I see "pre-web designers" make these typical mistakes, and it shows. Think of sites you have surfed. Now think of the feeling you had with them. Did you trust them? Was it easy to navigate?
The most horrifying of all mistakes is using Java or applets, which sometimes locks up or freezes a user's computer.
Test your site out many times before subjecting the world to it. Ask relatives and friends and co-workers to evaluate. Post in newsgroups. You'll get excellent responses here and most are good ones.
Avoid using special colors. Some browsers like Netscape do not always see the color the same way you do.
Make sure your graphics are small and not too many in a page... LOAD TIME IS EVERYTHING! Animation should be used sparingly, and if you're borrowing from someone else's site, make sure you have permission.
I always look at the big guys' site and try to imitate perfection as much as possible. If you want to be successful at web design, you will need to do some surfing, get your notebook out and take notes.
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© 2000 Maggie Barber-Jones
**Maggie Barber-Jones is the owner of Pentraxx Graphix and Web Design.
Forget the plain jane website design companies. If you want a professional appearing
website, Pentraxx will deliver for you the promise of the web. With her degree in
Graphic Design and plenty of experience as an ad designer and graphic designer for
newspapers in the Great Plains, Maggie is well prepared to build a site for you that
represents your company in a truly professional light.
