There are many ways of making a decent looking website and usually the only limitation is the designer’s creativity. Saying that, it is important to know that there some postulates or ideas that might help us design even more attractive sites in the eyes of our visitors. 

Do not underline regular text unless it is a hyperlink!Basic web design principles

  1. Site’s functionality

    • The key path to a good website is its functionality.
    • A site must be easy to manage around and not hard to interpret. If the topic on a particular page is rather large, it is better to break it down in multiple sections or even pages.

  2. Landing page quality

    • A home page or landing page (landing page may be but doesn’t have to be the home page) should attract visitors.
    • Whether it is a product you are selling or just blogging about something the layout and information should stress out the stronger side(s) of your site’s content. In other words a visitor, specially a new one, should be “hooked” on your website and he or she might even come back to visit again!

  3. Orientation

    • For visitors that know what they are looking for, the landing page should be very clear and those people must be able to find what they want as quickly as possible.
    • Try to keep your paragraphs short and simple, use headings, lists and try to occasionally bold out some important statements or links.

  4. Navigation

    • Navigation throughout the site must be as simple and transparent as possible.
    • Your menus and sub menus should be easy to find, instinctive and as simple as they can be. In many cases it is good idea to use site maps (RSS...). Larger sites should include some sort of a search field, whether provided by a third party like Google, or written on your own.

  5. Text readability

    •  Text fonts must be pleasant to the visitors but also browser friendly.
    •  The chosen font these days is not such critical item because most of the modern browsers will recognize it but it is a good practice to assign multiple font families instead of only one, with the 2nd or 3rd font family being some of the most often ones used on the web (Times New Roman, Arial...) so if the main fails being recognized, a browser loads a backup font family. Text size can be a fixed number, but preferably it will be designed in such a manner that users can increase or decrease the size via a browser’s options (use ‘%’ or ‘em’ as font’s size units).
    • Pay attention that the background color or graphics is not in the same color or shadow range as the text or otherwise a visitor might not be able to read what is written (let say a white text on a yellow surface is not a good idea).

  6. Hyperlinks

    • Hyperlinks are important because they offer great experiences for visitors, leading them to other pages on the same site or other websites.
    • Links are very useful also for the search engines such as Google or Yahoo as they use them to define website’s popularity rank (one of the parameters).
    • Do not over use links and definitely do not underline any other text except the links themselves. That is considered as bad practice.

  7. Multimedia and animation (graphics, clips, sound...)

    • Multimedia enhances a visitor’s experience but only if it is designed and placed properly.
    • A cluster of unnecessary pictures, Flash videos or JavaScript codes can produce the opposite effect, it might annoy or confuse a visitor or even slow down the page. Don’t over do it! Use it only when you must, like graphics in main navigation buttons, pictures of a product you are selling, contact information with a photo of you or inside an advertisement, etc.
    • In the case of ads running on your site, limit the amount of them or otherwise deal with untasteful website and probable client annoyance. And yes, do not add sound to a page, unless you are in the entertainment business!

  8. Site's credibility

    • Try to maintain credibility of your website.
    • There are few options that can do well for the credibility of your website, naturally if possible to implement them.
    • Always have privacy policy and terms of use on disposal for your customers, ensure secure credit card processing (make sure it’s clear and visible), ensure a professional website design, offer warranty on your products, add transparent contact information, answer and listen to advices coming from your visitors, add testimonials if possible, make sure that domain name is valid (if possible named by you and / or your business).

  9. Contact with the visitors and interactivity

    • Establish contact with your visitors.
    • There must be your e-mail address and hopefully a contact form. Having a phone number on disposal is also a good idea.
    • Listen and research what your visitors and potential customers have to say, whether via an e-mail or surveys, ask them, read the reviews. Hold onto their information if possible and approach  them in a more personal manner, always reply. Offer a newsletter or a discussion board like forum.

  10. Dynamics of the material and design

    • Always add new stuff to your site, let say add new pages or modify some content once a week.
    • If possible inform existing visitors or advertise for the new ones about new material. That will bring old customers back and perhaps invite newcomers as well.
    • Try to keep the site’s layout and graphics fresh and new.