Logo Design & Website Design by firebubble

There is a lot to consider when creating your website design. How will a visitor navigate around your pages? How will you use images effectively? What content will be placed online and where? As it’s so easy to get bogged down in the detail, we thought that we would create a list of the top ten tips to utilise in order to create an effective website design each and every time.

Tip one – Never change your navigation

The amount of websites that offer a different navigation bar on their homepage compared to the other pages within the website is shocking. Keep things consistent and clear so that you visitors can always find their way quickly to the information that they’re after.

Tip two – Create great content

Content is the key to encouraging your visitors to return to your website, so make sure that you dedicate enough time to creating compelling information. It will also help you to climb through the search engine rankings.

Tip three – Ensure that your website loads quickly

Your visitors don’t want to sit for several minutes just waiting for your homepage to open on their internet browsers. Ensure that your website is optimised so that any long loading times are reduced to as small a time as possible.

Tip four – Remember different website browsers

Everyone has a favourite internet browser, be it Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari or any other. Ensure you test your website on a variety of different browsers before launching it on the internet to make sure that it looks as it should on each and every one.

Tip five – Only use easy to read fonts

Fancy italicised and script based fonts could look lovely in your eyes, but if they stop visitors from being able to read your content at a glance they should not be used. Scrap fancy fonts for something familiar and ensure that the colour is readable against whatever background you may be using.

Tip six – Design for different screen resolutions

There’s certainly a demand for the latest high definition monitor lately, but there are many people still using old monitors that could be running a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. Horizontal scrolling on a website is not a fun experience, so consider the different resolution sizes when developing your website.

Tip seven – Minimise the use of images

Images can be a powerful tool to express what you can’t possibly say in words, but too many may give your website design an unprofessional and cluttered look. Keep things simple when it comes to your design, and consider the use of an image gallery to incorporate your pictures without allowing them to dominate the website.

Tip eight – Check for broken links

There’s nothing more frustrating than following a link to the information you require only to be told that the webpage doesn’t exist. Keep testing your links to ensure that every internal and external link sends your visitors to the right place.

Tip nine – Use a Favicon

The small 16 x 16 pixel icon that can be seen within your internet browser when looking at certain websites is known as a Favicon. Create one and drop it into the root directory of your website for added professionalism.

Tip ten – Never stop testing

You may remember to test your website at the outset, but what about a few months after it was released to the internet? Try to explore your website once every month, following the links and ensuring that the design looks as it should to keep your website running smoothly.

Author Note: (The above article has been added to our Website Design Articles section as part of our efforts to help provide our website visitors and customers with an insight into the Logo Design and Website Design industry).

Copyright Note: (Permission is Not granted for these articles to be featured on other websites or blogs).