With the continued growth of the Internet, web sites are becoming an increasingly important tool for any business and having the right design can easily make or break a business. Web design is a reflection of your business both online and off. Here are five common mistakes to avoid along with their associated golden rules to get your web design off the ground and moving forward.

Common Mistake #1

• Over design

Golden Rule #1

• Keep it simple

Don’t use flash and animation unless it’s necessary. It can be distracting and usually slows down your site. Don’t make visitors wait for pages to load because of complex animation. Visitors don’t want to waste valuable time and quickly become impatient. If seconds begin ticking by waiting for a page to load, visitors will swiftly move on, never to return.

Flash can also cause search engine crawlers to pass over your site. Web crawlers find pages by going from link to link, ranking pages as they go. If the first page of your site is a flash page, the crawler may not be able to enter the site and will simply pass it by without ranking it.

Don’t add every new graphic that you find to your design just because it’s cool. Only use a graphic if it clearly relates to the content and objective of the site and provides some type of value to it;

Over designing will cause your site to be slow and can make your site hard to navigate. Don’t confuse your visitors by cramming too much into the design. The site should be intuitive and easy to use;

If you have an existing site that has gotten out of hand, it may be more productive to start over completely rather than attempting to fix what you have. This will provide you with an opportunity to develop the site using what you already know about it; and

Stay organized and keep in mind that less is usually more.

Common Mistake #2

• Lack of a clear vision

Golden Rule #2

• Define your objective before you start the design

Plan ahead, don’t make your design too broad in scope or visitors will be confused;

Think about what you are trying to accomplish with your site and keep it in mind throughout the design process;

Define your goal before starting the design process. Do you want to sell a product or service, provide information, or review products? Know where you are headed with the site and focus on it during the design ;

Begin with a solid foundation and build upon it. If you follow web standards and develop a basic, solid design it will give you the foundation you need to build your site;

Don’t confuse your visitors with too much variety. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. This makes it hard for a visitor to concentrate on what you want them to concentrate on; and

Don’t lose focus or you will lose visitors.

Common Mistake #3

• Not defining your target audience

Golden Rule #3

• Know your visitors well

Take the time, before the design process begins, to ask questions about the demographic you are trying to reach, narrow it down;

By understanding clearly who your visitors will be you will be able to dig into their likes and dislikes and provide them with what they are looking for;

Determine what visitors will want to get out of a visit to your site and how you will give it to them. Do some research, looking at other successful sites with the same demographic and think about what would make it even better; and

Design your site around your visitors not yourself or your peers.

Common Mistake #4

• Not providing true value to your visitor

Golden Rule #4

• Give the visitor what they want

Visitors come to a site because they are looking for something. Whether that is information, products, services, or something else, if you give them what they want and they will find value in it;

Perceived value brings return visits, visitors will return to sites that provide them with something they value, it can be tangible or intangible, but if it addresses their needs, it will get you repeat visitors;

Don’t require a visitor to register or sign-up before providing them with something of value to them, this will annoy your visitor and cause mistrust. If this happens, they may simply go to another site that will provide them with what they seek without having to give personal information at the outset;

If you do require personal information from a visitor, let them know why you are asking them to provide it to you. Perhaps it is so you are able to offer a more personalized experience, perhaps it so you can send them something of further value. Whatever the reason, by stating it upfront, you will gain their trust and they may be more willing to provide you with the information you want; and

A professional design puts the visitor at ease. Double check that everything on the site works and you have no typos or misused words. It can be hard to perceive any type of value from a design that appears unprofessional and sloppy.

Common Mistake #5

• Inconsistency

Golden Rule #5

• Maintain a consistent style throughout the site

A consistent theme or style will keep the design and site organized, easy to follow, and easy for your visitors to use;

Stick with standard fonts and avoid too many different styles and sizes. While Arial, Times New Roman, Courier, and other standard fonts may seem bland and boring, they are on the systems of most users and you will avoid taking the focus from where it belongs, the visitor;

Stay within the theme of the site and use consistent color schemes. Decide on a theme that can be used throughout the site, stick with a few colors that compliment each other and use them consistently;

The pages of your site should remain cohesive, a visitor should be able to tell they are still on the same site as they move from page to page; and

Visitors will become confused and leave the site when faced with too many confusing changes as they move from page to page.

These are the ones i know. Please feel free to add your owns

Tags: art, design

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