Web & Internet

When it comes to website design, extra attention should be paid to every minute detail to make sure it performs optimally to serve the purpose of its existence. One very common occurrence in many websites owned by amateurs is the use of fancy graphic works that need a very long time to load them.

To help you remember the rules for effective website design, here are five basic rules. 1) Splash pages should not be included

The splash pages are the fancy pages you see when you enter a website. Made up of pretty designs, they are usually lavish images and graphics with accompanying words such as “welcome to our site” or “click here to enter”. They are pages with no purpose, and serves to discourage uses from fully utilizing the actual purpose of the website due to their slow loading time. Visitors will be more likely to leave your first page without waiting for the exceptionally slow loading time due to the heavy graphics used.

2) Avoid excessive banner advertisements

Some sites have a number of these advertising banners displayed around the page but the most prominent place is at the top. Banner ad tends to be ignored by most web surfers so it is a total majority of the web surfers so they would a total waste of your website space. Instead add useful contents and add your affiliate links skillfully into the body of the text so that it would seem like a natural part of your text and not an advertisement.

3) Make it an effort to make navigation very simple

Keep navigation simple so that the youngest user can use it. Leave out any form of complicated menu that is flash based or the use of multi-tiered menu: they only add to complicate the layout. Remember, if users find it hard to navigate, they will leave very soon after landing on your home page. Have a sitemap added to the website design to help them find what they are looking for.

4) There needs to be a clear indicator where the user is on the website

Give them a clear view of where they are now and how to get to where they want to be. That way, they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site easily. This can easily be achieved by ensuring each page has a title and a textual ‘breadcrumb trail’ that clearly shows the links they have made to get where they are now. If you confuse your visitors in any way they will leave.

5) Think carefully before you insert audio in your pages

If you want your visitors to stay a long time and read the contents, do not irritate em with your audio. A sound file should not be played continuously it can be irritating on the user. When adding audio to your website, make sure to include some form of user control that allows them to mute or lower the sound as required. When you use all this website design information, you will find that your visitors will return again and again to your site.