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What makes a great website?
What are the essential traits of great web sites? After you visit a site and find yourself staying a while, what makes you stay? A sense of humor helps. Flashy graphics are nice. But the fundamental traits that make a site work are more elusive. This page will break down the essential characteristics of great websites into some easily followed rules of thumb.
Your Audience
Ninety percent of creating a website has nothing to do with computers. It has to do with defining your audience. Before you even type one HTML (HyperText Markup Language) tag to create a Web page, you must know why you are creating the Web page. Simply wanting a "Web presence" is not enough for creating a Web page or site. You must have definition and purpose.
Ask yourself these questions:
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Who is your audience?Are they seeking information and/or entertainment?
What information are they seeking? Are they looking for quick facts or details; and supporting media such as graphics, pictures, audio?
Why are they going to your Web page/site?Are you an expert, a general source, an educational source, an entertainment source?
Are you designing your site appropriately?Are you planning on design that matches your purpose and your role as a specific source type?
How will your audience technically access your site?Top of the line or low-end. Which browser, which version. High-speed connection or modem. Will they be printing your page(s)?
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The Site: Words and Pictures
Given your audience and resources, your site should be one that catches the user's attention through graphics. Single pictures well cropped and positioned can invoke a very powerful reaction. Remember that the 'size' of a picture on the Web is not only the dimensions but also the filesize. You should use graphics software to crop (for visual affect) and to resize your picture to minimize filesize. Computer monitors display at 72 dpi(dots per inch). If a picture is saved at a greater dpi you are only wasting filesize space, adding to the load time of your pageunnecessarily.
The words you choose, especially in your titles, headlines and subheads will grab one's attention. As in the reporters' inverted pyramid, use words on your Web pages as if you are going to lose your reader at the very next line. Capture them with your title. Keep their interest with your headlines. Let the subhead provide a quick review of what is to come next. And makesure the picture(s) are completely purposeful and can at least augment and enhance your text if not come close to replacing it.
The Site: Something You Can Manage and They Can Handle
"Build it and they shall come." Yes. But build something you can manage so they will like what they find when they get there and will want to come back. If you create a site that requires daily updates (using calendars perhaps) but don't provide those updates you disappoint your audience which leaves a profound effect on their response to your site and what it is presenting. If you provide links to other Web sites but don't check to see if they are still active on a regular basis, your site loses credibility. If you load your site with graphics, pictures, interactive capabilities that increase the loading time of your site, or restricts access (requiring a specific plug-in to review your site is one example), the 'Stop Loading' button may be their recourse. And remember about printing. If you are providing information your audience will want to print, design appropriately. Restrict colors, and size your page so a computer, at default settings, can print at standard mode. Not all clients know how to adjust printer specifications from portrait (standard vertical) to landscape (horizontal).
The Site: Once They Are There
Once you have your audience hooked into your site you must deliver. If you are an informational site you must provide the details expected. Navigation within your site is extremely important. If your audience can't find what it is looking for your site has failed. Using words your audience can identify with is key. You don't have to 'dumb-down' your site but use terminology or descriptions for your links and categories that your audience can understand. Use your first page as a strict introduction to what the site will provide. It is your cover page. Don’t try to cram all your information onto one page. Don't pack it with everything, instead let them know everything available via the site, clicking on your very clearly stated links. And be sure each and every page of your site provides clear identification of the site and how to navigate back to the home page. Your audience can enter your site from the backdoor and without clear identification and thorough navigation you will lose your clientvery easily.
The First Five Seconds
That's how much time you have to catch your audience's attention. If your main page is not quick to load, quick to display its purpose (through graphical and textual means) then you will quickly lose your audience. Build your main page for capture, using branding of your personal or affiliation identity through uniform logo, color and style. Carry that throughoutyour site so your audience always knows where they are, and with whom, no matter what page they are viewing within the total site.
Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should
There are a lot of technical capabilities available for Web pages: frames, animation, audio, video, etc. Some require your audience to have specific plug-ins on their computer, somerequire specific hardware capabilities. Using frames (the sectioning of a Web page into individual HTML pages that are collected as subsets into a single Web page) is tricky for your audience. It does not allow for bookmarking subpages and if any subset of the framestructure is accessed, perhaps via a Web Search results, your site will be incomplete by not providing the full frameset. Your audience may not have your title frame or your navigation frame. Good design practices that transcend print and online presentations include the conservative and purposeful use of fonts (don't use dozens, use them for specific effect); the use of colors (same as with fonts); use of white space (don't be afraid to use it); pictures and graphics should be enhancement not distractions. Use words, color, graphics and placement control through tables to design effectively.
But remember that what your see on your monitor is not necessarily what your audience will see. "Safe" fonts, fonts that are available on all computers, work best. Using Cascading Style Sheets helps but this is not always fail-safe method of controlling the look of a font on any monitor. It is the same with colors. If your design is heavily dependant on font and color you may want to consider more use of graphics instead of text, which unfortunately brings up the issue of ease of maintenance of your pages and any requirements to meet ADA (American Disabilties Act) standards. Designing for the Web is very much a test of balance and compromise.
Test your main page (all your pages actually) to see if your client's eyes are immediately going to what you consider the most important part of your page (in five seconds or less!) by stepping back from your screen and squinting as your page is loading. If your page is well designed your eyes will aim at the focal point of your page and follow in order of importance. Resist the temptation to overload your page with multiple graphics/pictures and fonts, competing headlines and colors, and your audience will focus appropriately. And if you have to have something spin, blink or be in two dozen colors or fonts then you need to think again about your design.
Bottom line for good design: if you can't justify it 100 percent to the purpose of your site then it doesn't belong. And any design that limits your audience's access to your site (technical or visual) should be strongly avoided.
Is It Working?
The most difficult part of the Web is knowing if your time and effort is being well spent and your audience is being satisfied. There is no point in creating and maintaining a Web site that is not successful. But how do you judge success? One way would be to survey your audience. Some might say that only complainers bother to fill out surveys, and they may be right. But if someone is very happy and the survey is presented in a welcoming light (and very specific) then you might find a more balanced response. You can also track "hits" to your site, but that does not really delve into the audience response to the page or site.
In both online surveys as well as with in-person focus groups, don't try to get all the answers at once. Pick an area to review, such as design in one survey and then navigation in another. Keep it short, pointed and quick and you'll get greater results. Comparing your site to similar sites is possible, but circumstance varies in all cases and can be important. Don't respond on a whim. Take suggestions and use your judgment of your service/product and your audience and apply them appropriately. The beauty of the Web isthat it is so adaptable, but audiences like a successful site to remain successful and not altered without real justification. Keeping up to date does not necessarily mean major change. Be open to new ideas and methods, but only apply them when appropriate to you and your audience.
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