A good website design is something which appeals to the surfers so that they take the interest of going through the site with ease. Even though a graphic artist would love to showcase innovative skills, it may not be viable for the Internet surfers. Search engine spiders too have a tough time to scan through exquisitely designed and programmed animations or images. So, while innovation, high-end skills are a must, care must be taken to include the optimum website designs for all users.
Navigation
Although navigation seems easy for most website designers, it may not be so for all types of users. Some may feel uneasy with the stylish navigational elements. So, ensure you use accepted norms in navigation to reduce the cognitive load of the user.
Layout
All website designs should have a clean and polished layout. What does a clean layout mean? It is a layout where optimum white space is used in the page. Templates offer good examples of a layout. Content or images does not really have to be elaborate or stacked in a place. A neat yet informative layout works wonders.
CSS
Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) is a better option to use in formatting text, using apt fonts or colors, or designing tables. Using CSS and not HTML code makes a website better accessible, reusable, have a limited file size. CSS can be used for good-looking Text Links Rollover, Text Spacing, Text Case Setting, Line-through Effect, creating exquisite bullets, etc.
Load Time
Many website designs overlook the load time factor that is immensely responsible for a site to succeed. Using proper codes and tools, the load time can be lowered to a level where users don’t have to wait 5 seconds or more for the site to load.
Graphics
Images or animations are wonderful no doubt, but if it goes to a point that hurts search engine ranking or takes a huge time to load, it is better to abandon the effort. Care must be taken to reduce the file size of the images – so a good image can be innovative, interesting, and “say thousand words” but not be heavy.
Tags and Unused Scripts
After a website has been designed, all sites must be tested for bugs and unused scripts. There can be unnecessary tags too which can create havoc in website design.
Server Side Include (SSI) files
Webmasters frantically search for solutions to make a page load faster. A faster loading website is much more appealing than a slow one. So, if Server Side Include (SSI) files are used, they help in reducing the load time. The reason being that the files are called only once from the server when the user checks into the site.
Screen Resolutions
An optimum screen resolution that does not include scrolls can work quite positively for the site. Easy to read, easy to use, and a visually appealing website design is a lucrative proposition for all sites.
Compatibility and Apt fonts or Colors
All website designs should be compatible with all browsers. Care must be taken to use a light color background image with dark fonts to make it easy for the readers to read the text.
With these tips in mind, you’d surely make an effective website that is popular among all types of users.
