The Science of Web Design

Web design is not a matter of creating a website that you feel is right. Rather, web design is a matter of designing a website which other people feel is right, i.e., your customers and potential customers. Many businesses fail to realize this when it comes to web design, which can lead to an unpopular website. To help avoid creating a website that doesn’t generate any business, consider the following guidelines in regards to web design.

Web Design Guideline #1:
Keep it simple When it comes to web design, many companies wrongfully assume that most people today have high speed Internet access. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The majority of Internet users today are still using dial-up access. Because this is the case, it is important to keep your web design simple. Avoid using flash or other fancy graphics on your website. Unless you sell a service or product that can’t be found anywhere else, you will loose a lot of business because many customers won’t be willing to wait for your website to load.

Web Design Guideline #2:
Don’t let the site go live until it is finished In the rush to begin doing business with their website, some companies rush the web design process and let the site go live before it is finished. This is an easy way to annoy potential customers whose time you just wasted by leading them to your site as well as a dead end. It also increases the likelihood that they will never go back to your website again. Have a little patience and allow the web design to be finished before letting your website go live.

Web Design Guideline #3:
Keep navigation easy Internet users don’t want the Internet surfing experience to be complicated and confusing. Remember this in regards to your web design. Navigating your website should be simple for even the most novice of Internet users.

Web Design Guideline #4:
Keep information up to date If your website is designed to provide visitors with information, then make sure that you’re providing the most up to date information. Informational websites would be wise to consider web design a constantly evolving process of their website.

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Nice article

helpful article
thanx

Thanks,

Please visit our blog for many more:

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Originally Posted by InfTekHosting Web design is not a matter of creating a website that you feel is right.

yes it is. clients feed us peramiters and we design accordingly. we're the advertising experts, we know what people will deem "feels right". if we don't feel it, it'll be hard to the public to.

Originally Posted by InfTekHosting The majority of Internet users today are still using dial-up access. Because this is the case, it is important to keep your web design simple.

proof?

you can make a high-impact design without it becoming a resource hog.

Originally Posted by InfTekHosting Avoid using flash or other fancy graphics on your website. Unless you sell a service or product that can’t be found anywhere else, you will loose a lot of business because many customers won’t be willing to wait for your website to load.

proof?

Originally Posted by derek lapp yes it is. clients feed us peramiters and we design accordingly. we're the advertising experts, we know what people will deem "feels right". if we don't feel it, it'll be hard to the public to.

Hmmmm....the article police:

Ok, well.....I will play along.

And as an "advertising expert Derek," you already know that just because YOU think a design is nice and/or fully functional does not mean that is necessarily the best means of relaying the client’s message each and every time to promote maximum results for him or her.
This is our objective as experts right?

Originally Posted by derek lapp proof?

For the Dialup user vs Broadband comment: See the report below that shows that in the US alone, dialup still is on top! Not to mention the remote locations of the world that internet users do not have broadband even available in thier areas.

http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_...trends2006.pdf

Even in 1999 Derek,..... In a number that has been widely quoted, Nielsen reported that "if a web page takes longer than 7-8 seconds to download then a user is likely to lose interest". It is 8 years later and people are more impatient now than ever......especially with the growing Broadband population.

http://www.upsdell.com/BrowserNews/res_load.htm

About 99.5% of our articles can be backed up by many publicy available online reports, surveys, and other related materials. Just use Google if you need proof please.

Derek, You are always welcome to comment on our other articles at http://www.inftekhosting.com/blog anytime!

I hope this helps you in your quest for proof.

Enjoy!

Just so you see my point on the "high-impact design" theory, see the screenshot taken of your personal website in my IE7 Browser running every Windows update available: Not all people know to update every browser plugin ever made to make your site load correctly.

Proof enough.

I agree that flash is not good for sites, most of the time it has hard navagation, even if it doesnt it takes longer to load. Dont even get my started on intros

Flash and other plugins are not horrible things, as long as the client knows the risk of people not running compatable viewers for them. We develop flash sites all of the time, for a pre-qualified client.

I'm not trying to push any design rules and regulations down anyones throat....just that there are some guidlines and best practice rules that should be followed in all apects of design when it comes to 100% compatability.

I agree with Java/Flash applets embedded into web pages. But I;m not sure I agree with entire sites being designed in such a way without a text-based alternative. To be fair, I'm biased on being fairly strict with accessibility when I code, but I've been to places like colleges, schools and such where you're restricted to no downloads and the browsers don't have the required plug-ins already installed.

Nice article by the way, was a good read