Over the years of being in the web hosting business, we have had many people ask us to define what a good website design is. And we have always stuck to the same principles. In this article, we will share our thoughts with our readers about what we think is a good website design and the elements that help define it.
Professionalism - Unless it is in the interest of your business to be fun, exciting and random, be professional. When it comes to trust and loyalty of customers, nothing beats professionalism. However, for some businesses, such as clothing, skincare, games, toys, it is better to have a fun image. People usually gravitate towards a business that has a professional image...both online and offline.
Simplicity - The best websites are not ones that are too complicated. Go easy on the color combination, and use images wisely. There is a downside to using too many colors on a website, it is confusing and to a certain extent, annoying. Pick, at most, three different but complimentary colors and use them wisely on the website.
Easy navigation - Have you ever been to a website that takes you forever to find links to a page that you want to find? If you have, then you will know why this tops the list of criteria. The best thing to do is to have important links placed at the top of the website where people can easily spot. Use a dropdown menu if that helps keep the page clean. Although it is more common for people to place other links on the left side of the web page, it is quite alright to have it on the right too. And for good measure, summarize and place additional links at the bottom of the page...so that visitors do not have to scroll all the way back up to the top of the page for important links.
Non-flash - For some businesses like photography, studios, recording companies, etc, it is a good idea to have a flash-based website because it is more expressive and to a certain extent, rather useful when it comes to presentation. But for other businesses, the long loading time is hardly worth the time and money. Flash is considered by many as fanciful and impatient web surfers often find them irrelevant and a waste of time.
Last but not least, content. We know it is not within the context of having a aesthetically-pleasing website but as a footnote, we hope that you will find the time to get someone to write something comprehensive about your website, company, brand and/or services without being too long-winded.
With all the above, we are sure that you will have an amazing online experience with web surfers.