Why Good Design Matters

Good design quite simply means the difference between success and failure online. Read on to find out more.

Some newbies to internet business think that all they need to do to make a nice income online is to throw together a website, get it online and sit back and wait for the money to start rolling in.

Unfortunately things aren't so simple. If you take a look at the most successful businesses online today - think of Google, Amazon and eBay for example - it's painfully obvious that every single one of those websites is well designed, nicely balanced and appeals to the needs of the people who find them.

This is no coincidence. While a good website design won't automatically guarantee your success online - you will still need a good business idea and a solid foundation on which to build your website in the first place - it will certainly push you further towards the success you seek if it's a fair representation of your business as a whole.

Therein is the key to why good design matters. Your website is a reflection of your whole business. If people discover your website and it's badly put together, unprofessional looking and a mish mash of ideas that just don't make the grade, they aren't likely to get a very good impression of what the business behind the website is like. Your business might be one of the best in its field - but if your site doesn't show that fact to people, it won't be a success.

A well designed website also has the ability to make people stay on it for much longer. If it's easy to browse round then people are likely to do so, and that can mean more sales for you. Good navigation is crucial to a good website - if you don't have it even the best website can fall down as people get frustrated and go elsewhere instead of struggling to find what they're looking for.

In short, good design reflects on you and your business. It's not too hard to obey some simple rules about layout and good design, and by doing so you could increase your business significantly.

Fundamental Principles Of Good Web Design

Web design involves a lot of ins and outs and techniques that can make good design somewhat difficult to attain at times. However there are basic principles that you should always try and stick to in order to ensure your websites look good every single time.

We can all spot a bad website design when we see it, and equally we seem to know what looks good when we browse the web for information on all manner of different subjects.

So how come it's so difficult to design a good website ourselves?

The answer is probably because there is no well defined end point to designing a website. Even when your site goes live you still aren't finished, because there will always be tweaking and redesigning to do, not to mention regular updating of certain features to make your site even better than it was to begin with.

However there are several principles that have always (and probably will always) remained constant and the first of these is the question of how user friendly a site design is.

However you design your website it needs to be easy for your visitors to find their way around. Providing a site map and a clear navigation system are both an absolute must - you simply can't get round this. Not if you want to attract and keep lots of visitors anyway.

You should also ensure that all the elements of your web design make it clear as to what the focus of your site is. This can go right down to the typeface you use. You wouldn't dream of using a comical typeface and bright primary colors if your website was all about serious health problems, so make sure your design features don't mislead your visitors in any way.

You should also resist the urge to be clever. Websites that try to be clever generally fall by the wayside eventually, because they either don't plug in to the user's needs, or they simply forget what they're supposed to be there for while the webmaster is caught up in making everything look nice.

Good web design is essentially a fine balance between the visual aspects of a website and the practical aspects of it, including usability, content and function. It's also about consistency. Keep to one typeface throughout the entire site and make the heading of each page exactly the same to create a consistent feel. When you view some websites you can jump from page to page and feel as if you're going through about six different websites. Make sure every single one of your pages is branded so that people know they are still on your website.

It's also important to understand the value of having a fast loading site. Not everyone has broadband and if you use huge images that take forever to download you are going to lose visitors - it's that simple. Always put the needs and requirements of your visitors before your own. Images can be compressed, but you need to remember that people are visiting your website mainly to get information, and that comes in the form of text. So make sure the balance is right and you have the information they need.

In short, good web design is all about creating a website that is pleasing to the eye and easy on the visitors who will find it. If you can manage that, you are halfway to success.