Saturday, May 15, 2010

KEY POINTS WHEN DESIGNING A WEBSITE (WEBSITE TIPS)

A well built website can act as your best sales person, therefore careful planning and execution of website design and layout is a crucial element in creating a positive user experience and increasing direct revenue. I am involved as a key member in developing, on an average 20 websites a month with full testing and browser compatibility.

Top 9 Website Design Standards

1. Logo Placement

As a business, you want to establish your branding from the moment the user enters your website. The best way to do this is by prominently displaying your logo above the fold. If the design aesthetic allows for it, the best location for your logo is the upper left-hand corner of the site. Research has proven that the upper left-hand corner is the first place a user’s eye goes. Additionally, this creates another opportunity to link to the homepage from all internal pages of the site.

2. Main Navigation- Revenue Impacting Items

Major revenue impacting items should appear at the top in a vertically displayed navigation. In a horizontal navigation, they should appear from left to right, with the most important items on the left. These layout standards are intuitive and ease users through the site.

3. Images

Great photography is key to the success of design in your website. The use of wide panoramic images in both the main image area and the photo gallery are a great way to entice a potential customer into wanting to see and learn more about the property. Whenever possible, the images should include lifestyle shots that target your demographic. The best way to help a potential customer envision the experience of the hotel or DMO is to get them to see someone “like them” who is enjoying the experience.

4. Static Lead Rate

Whenever possible, the lead rate should remain static and prominently displayed above the fold. Potential customers are looking for this rate upon entering the site to see what the lowest possible price per night your hotel is offering. This information is key to your potential customers.

5. Footer Navigation

Include all elements that are found in the main and utility navigation in the footer navigation as well. This is especially important if your main navigational area is in flash as search engines cannot recognize text located within flash design.

6. Address and Contact Information

Contact information should appear in system text on the site for improved SEO purposes. Whether it’s in the footer, utility navigation, or side panel, this information should be included on every page, and it should not be displayed as an image.

7. Text Readability

A light background with dark text is better for those with impaired vision. Whenever possible, it’s a good idea to use this color combination for that reason. Additionally, websites should use web safe fonts to maintain the consistency in design of your sites across all browsers.

8. Screen Resolution

The majority of users have a 1024×768 screen resolution. Your site should be built to this screen resolution, but also have the ability to fluidly scale for those users who have a larger monitor.

9. Social Networking

Social networking icons (such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc.) should always be included if you regularly update these marketing tools. Linking users to these sites offers an opportunity to market your brand across several different types of internet media.

- Ankur Goel
Email: ankursgoel@gmail.com

13 comments:

  1. An Excellent post.Really nice sharing.You shared basic but most important information about designing.Good Web design is the same as good design.If you understand the elements that make up good design,you will have a Web page that works well.Thanks for sharing.

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  2. I was searching for some good designing tips. This post gave me so many points that are easy to follow and implement. I am feeling so excited and will help all my friends too.
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  3. The Key points to design a website: short yet informative. Sharp points for web designing and the insight into the standards was quite useful. Interesting blog to read for fellow designers.

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  4. I have to design a website for my college cultural fest. I find these points are essential, practical and easily implementable. I am really thankful to Mr. Ankur Goel for writing such an informative blog. Thanks for sharing.

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  7. these are quite basic but quite fundamental key points and we at ThinkToShare have been applying these to our work ethos since our early days. Now years later and many successful projects later, we are India’s most loved online digital solution, with our renowned website designing services as well as digital marketing solutions and content management, creation and promotion services. Join u walk this path to success.

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  8. Being a Web Design Agency Sydney I appreciate the article, This article is very useful for Web Designers. Thanks for sharing such a nice article.

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