1 - Use heaps of colours
Using heaps of colours is a sure way to get carried away and take the classy look from the web site. Too much is just that. You just need a handful of colours that compliment each other. Yes, applying 30 different colours on alternative flashing backgrounds might make the links stand out, but at what price?
Also, be very attentive of the colour palette you settle on. I was recently expected to use a theme on a website, with part of it red copy on green and the rest green text on red. An out of the ordinary mixture, more than ever as the web site was for an opticians, who may possibly be dealing with red-green colourblind customers…
2 - Hide the navigation
Unbelievably, stacks of people design sites and miss elements of the navigation from the screen. I’ve had graphic designers pass me final proofs to work from, that the customer has signed off, that right away I look at and spot an elemental part of the navigation is not there.
It does sound impossible, but on shopping websites I have seen designs that are missing simple bit for instance a link to the shopping basket or checkout. If a customer adds a product and then goes back to view more, but then wants to checkout, they straightforwardly cannot buy from you.
3 - Design for paper
Not having a dig at graphic designers (as some work very well on sites), but there are also plenty that do not get their head around the fact that a piece of paper is totally different to a site. Several times I have been passed layouts that work on a widescreen, but would require horizontal and vertical scrolling on a normal sized screen. Or the layout calls for a variable screen width, but all of the components are fixed width.
You have to allow for the fact that there are a myriad of browsers, operating systems and screens in use and they will all show your website in a different way.
4 - Merely test your website in one browser
Different browsers will display your site in different ways. The formatting between, as for instance, Internet Explorer and Firefox can be slightly different when using certain techniques. A web site that works in one browser does not always look its best in another. It is a difficult and frustrating process, but you have to check your website in different browsers, different operating systems and different screen sizes.
5 - build a site and sit back
I am always startled at the number of people that think that building a website is the lifeline their business needs. Pay a few hundred for a website and then they will be run off their feet fulfilling orders.
This is not the case. Merely because you pay for a site, this does not mean that it will be an overnight runaway success. With every new website you need to market it. That means promoting it to customers and local marketing, promoting it through social media and article writing, pay per click schemes, optimisation and a whole lot more.
Without marketing, your website is as good as non existant.
Author Resource:
Written by Keith Lunt, who supplies a Merseyside website design service. If you would like to know more about website design, call into our website design blog and watch out for our new free Ebook, coming soon!
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