Most Effective web design
A well-designed site has many components – if any component is missing then the overall effectiveness of the site will be affected. The major components of site design are:
Most Effective web design
A well-designed site has many components – if any component is missing then the overall effectiveness of the site will be affected. The major components of site design are:
Visual design
This is the area that most people think of when asked about web design – how does it look?
The Visual design is the graphical treatment of the website and includes images, graphic element placement, colours, fonts, space usage, and so on.
Different designs and colour schemes will appeal to different customers so it is important to understand your customer first.
Technical design
Technical design involves using the right technology for development and future enhancements, using appropriate screen resolutions, catering for browser issues, making sure that the download speeds are the best they can be, and enhancing security to avoid unauthorised access/modification.
Two Important criteria in selecting technology is a) ease of maintenance, and b) expandability for future changes.
Accessibility design
Accessibility design ensures that everyone can access and use your website and it ensures that everyone can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with your site. Important questions to ask are:
- Is there enough contrast between text and background to allow readability?
- How does your colour scheme look like to a colour-blind person?
- What does the site look like in a pure text-browser with no flash animations, no images, and no sound?
- How does your website perform for a visually impared person with a voice browser?
Usability & content design
Usability & content design is all about optimising the user experience
- Is the site easy to use and intuitive?
- Are all the expected design elements where they should be?
- Does the visitor need to think about what to do next?
- Are the content and page elements organised in a way to make them clear and simple?
- Is the visitor’s time used efficiently?
- Is each page focused on a single topic?
- Is the site Search Engine friendly?
- Overall, is the site user friendly?
Navigation design
Navigation design adds to the simplicity of use, and clarity of the website. Considerations when designing for navigability are:
- Can the visitor easily know what to do next?
- Can all content be found within 3 clicks from the home page?
- Are there multiple ways to access all content on the site?
- Is the navigation consistent?
