The Five Elements Of Powerful Web Design Strategy

There is nothing simple about designing a website. Anyone using the internet on a regular basis – whether for work or for personal matters – instinctively evaluates each website he or she navigates through, judging each page on effectiveness and style.

For whatever reason you are launching a website, the goals are going to be the same. You want to keep visitors interested and allow them to move freely from the home page without getting jammed. If at any point a visitor feels confusion, chances are they are moments away from leaving.

Any premature exit from your site will defeat its purpose and keep and cause you to weigh the viability of features you once considered essential to your presentation. The only way to avoid this catastrophe is to start with a sound plan and see it through to the end. If you find an area that needs tweaking, it can be handled much easier if the rest of the site is in great shape. Here are the five must-do points for any well-designed website.

1. Navigation is easy. Your website must be easily traveled for it to be successful. Topping the list of consumer complaints is always this topic. Try to make it simple to get to different pages and, then, simple to return to from where they came. Cutting down on the amount of links on the home page is always well-advised, as more will undoubtedly pop up in the future. Use drop-down menus instead. Also, don’t be shy about adding highlight links to key features, even if they already have a standard link constructed.

2. Construct a clean layout. Like a postcard, the home page of your website is ideally a perfect marriage of ideas and pictures. Websites can repel visitors when one or the other is lacking. Layouts which have plenty of open space are welcoming and tend to invite longer visits. Also, remember that certain fonts can come out distorted on different operating systems, so find a style that will translate.

3. Consider different screen resolutions. With websites with extended content (i.e., long articles which require lengthy pages), you will need to try and accommodate the different screen resolutions of visitors. To limit scrolling, find a layout which has the ability to stretch and present itself without issue.

4. Try to minimize the load times. Everyone knows the feeling: If a page doesn’t load, it’s a matter of moments before leaving the site. Excessive amounts of graphics and showy presentations can cause your site to load pages slowly and turn off the visitor. The same goes for scripts and codes that aren’t even being used. A leaner site will keep visitors engaged.

5. Keep a scale in mind. Because there are so many changes to computers and to the internet itself, the only thing to be sure of is that it will all change. For this reason, work with a design that can be scaled and limit the amount of updates required in the future. A review of the last major changes will be instructive.

Damian Papworth knows business owners struggle with Small Business website design. This is why so many have basic design flaws. To help he wrote the book Small Business Websites, advising business owners about the internet in a language they can understand.

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