Web Design & Development: Attributes of Good Design
Web Design & Development: Attributes of Good Design
You've decided to put up a website, so how do you go about it? First of all, if you are not a programmer, you will be best served by hiring a web designer or a web design company. Shop around and ask people who have websites for their recommendations. Ask questions about the quality of a designer's code.
Look at sites he/she has designed. Look for easy navigation and pleasing design.
Preparing to take your message into cyberspace
Before you hire a web designer, there are some things that you and you, alone, must do.
Purpose. Don't make the mistake of going to all of this trouble and cost if you don't have a clearly designed purpose for your website. It's all too easy to make this decision simply on the basis that everyone else is doing it. Are you putting up an online store? Then your purpose will be to sell stuff. Are you providing valuable, specialized information to people who would be interested in it? Then your purpose is to find an audience for your information. Your purpose will be unique to you, but just be sure you have defined it for yourself before launching your project. Think in terms of what you expect to happen once the site is up.
Audience. Who will be the best possible clients for your product? Or who will want to know the information you are sharing? What kind of computer will they be likely to use? iPod? Desktop? Office computer? Apple? PC? Make a guess as to how experienced they will be at retrieving information. Making accurate guesses about all of these will determine what your website will look like and how successful it will be in accomplishing your purpose.
Content. If you have clearly defined your purpose, then creating good content should come fairly easily. It's important first of all to collect the information you need on your site and then arrange it in such a way that it can be easily and logically accessed. Take a second and then a third look to be sure everything that is needed is included and that no superfluous information is included. Viewers will be impatient if you waste their time.
Now you©re ready to work with a designer. Ask for frequent reviews of the site so you can be sure you're getting what you want and are paying for. Once the designer has finished work and the pages are ready for launching, make certain they're attractive, easy to navigate, don't contain superfluous information, and will accomplish your purpose. You might even put together a focus group to pass judgment on the effectiveness of the overall site and to make recommendations for improvement.