What to Look for in Good Web Site Design

1. Tasteful Graphics

Graphics should reflect the professional image of the business or organization. They should be appealing to your target market. Graphics set the stage for the most important part of the site: the content. Your graphics should attract the reader, not distract them from the content.

In the example below the graphics are artistic, tasteful and represent the lawyer's professionalism.

Example of tasteful law firm web site design

2. Minimize Animation

Animation should be used sparingly. Animation that repeats endlessly on a page or as each page loads is distracting. You will notice that the animation only plays on the home page of this site. It plays once and then stops.

Example of limited animation

3. Easy to Read Design

High contrast, dark text on white background, while uninteresting, is still the easiest for most people to read. If your site is content-intensive and you want people to actually read it, you should make sure the font size is big enough. We recommend at least 10 point font. Smaller fonts cause eye strain.

4. Avoid Splash Intro Pages

Splash Intro pages delay your readers in reaching you. It's like extra packing on food when you are hungry. You don't want to have to mess with it. Allow your users immediate access to the important text and menu on your site, so they can quickly find what they are looking for.

The average visitor stays on a page for only 35 seconds. A splash page chews up valuable time during which they might be convinced that you have what they want.

Some sites have multiple menus. Depending upon how the site is built, you may not even notice a menu. Menu items above the logo and header graphics often go unnoticed. This is called banner blindness. Important menu items should not be put there.

On some sites there is not a link back to the home page from pages down in the site. The user gets lost in the site. They should be able to navigate around the site without using the back button.

The user needs to have an intuitive menu to get a sense of where they are in a virtual space. The main navigation menu items should appear on every page. For sites with complex hierarchical menu choices, a breadcrumb trail at the top of the content section will help the user understand where they are. An example of a breadcrumb trail is:
Home>Products>Desktops

Looking at the example, you can easily understand how the content is organized. Clickable pages are identified with underlining.

6. Written for Internet Readers

Business writing can tend to be full of jargon, long sentences and big words. Some site owners are tempted to put existing material from business documents on their web sites. Don’t do it!

The content needs to be rewritten to make it easier to understand. We recommend a conversational writing style: writing it like you would say it, without the ums. When writing for the Internet, be concise, be specific and be informative.

7. Formatted for Internet Readers

Internet readers skim pages for specific information. Content needs to be easier to read. Readers drown in long paragraphs. Existing copy needs to be revised for this medium. Some useful editing techniques are:

• Bullets
• Headings
• Bolding selected words
• Short paragraphs
• Short sentences

In the example below we incorporated all these techniques to explain the benefits of Invisalign braces to readers.

Formatted for Internet readers example

8. Content Rich

Users will appreciate your site, your services and your products more when you provide specific information. Include product specifications, cite actual work done or show comparison charts.

In this example, we developed a comparison chart of the costs and benefits of various braces. And we included pictures, to help the patient see what they would look like. This is unique for our client.

Content rich web site example

9. Titles Reflect the Page Content

The page title can be seen at the top of your browser window in the blue bar. When a user bookmarks a page, the title shows up alphabetically in the favorites list. The title should tell the reader what the page is about.

Title reflecting page conent