Rational Website Design Usability Approaches
The design of your website is very important if you want to build your brand and get people to your site: it is what helps you make the best impression. While there are all sorts of things that will factor into the success of your website, your major concern is the design. So what should you do to make sure that your web design is perfect? Here are a few things that you need to keep in mind.
Graphics are Important: Don't let there be any sort of inconsistency in the graphics you post on your site; they need to all be defined and sized correctly. This way you'll optimize your site's design for the best performance, and make it stand out from the crowd. The simple truth is that web pages that are filled with good graphics and are consistent are easier to load. Nicely defined graphics enhance the appeal as well as the performance of your website which will help it to work well across all of the browsers. When your images are sized well, your loading time and workload will be much easier for your browser to handle.
Usually all site designs automatically place the homepage link right at the top and usually under the header.
We recommend using the link text, Home, so people know immediately the purpose. You want to give people the ability to quickly "go home" on each and every page. For example, let's take your website's navigation bar - it should be in the same place on each of your page, and not moved around. You can place your logo in the top left area of the header and make that a clickable home page link.
Of course you need to make sure that your content is the main attraction because it is. A site that makes heavy use of Flash animation always makes us think the designer, or the webmaster, is just trying to impress people. The use of Flash may be acceptable for some kinds of sites, but it is a judgment call so we will not say, never use it.
Another consideration is browser loading time, and if you are doing SEO then that is important. You can and should link to your content from a page that is heavy with Flash, but we would have to ask you why you want to use Flash. There are a lot of people who prefer to avoid dealing with Flash completely on webpages, so the external link to content may be a good idea. You will design your site and then perhaps keep refining it as time goes on. What you do and how you handle it is your business, but just keep in mind that your visitors and market are the only people you need to please.
Graphics are Important: Don't let there be any sort of inconsistency in the graphics you post on your site; they need to all be defined and sized correctly. This way you'll optimize your site's design for the best performance, and make it stand out from the crowd. The simple truth is that web pages that are filled with good graphics and are consistent are easier to load. Nicely defined graphics enhance the appeal as well as the performance of your website which will help it to work well across all of the browsers. When your images are sized well, your loading time and workload will be much easier for your browser to handle.
Usually all site designs automatically place the homepage link right at the top and usually under the header.
We recommend using the link text, Home, so people know immediately the purpose. You want to give people the ability to quickly "go home" on each and every page. For example, let's take your website's navigation bar - it should be in the same place on each of your page, and not moved around. You can place your logo in the top left area of the header and make that a clickable home page link.
Of course you need to make sure that your content is the main attraction because it is. A site that makes heavy use of Flash animation always makes us think the designer, or the webmaster, is just trying to impress people. The use of Flash may be acceptable for some kinds of sites, but it is a judgment call so we will not say, never use it.
Another consideration is browser loading time, and if you are doing SEO then that is important. You can and should link to your content from a page that is heavy with Flash, but we would have to ask you why you want to use Flash. There are a lot of people who prefer to avoid dealing with Flash completely on webpages, so the external link to content may be a good idea. You will design your site and then perhaps keep refining it as time goes on. What you do and how you handle it is your business, but just keep in mind that your visitors and market are the only people you need to please.
