7/28/2019 Tips for WebDesign

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1) Beore you start designing, know what you want tosay and what you want to have happen. Gettingclarity up ront is a make-it-or-break-it rst step andthe hardest part o any design. Failure to dene avision — and work to it — is the most common ailureon the Web and why the Web is so dissonant.

2) Think not in pages but in sound bites. Condensea message to a ew words, a picture, a square inch.That’s good practice in print, but it’s essential on theWeb. Viewers don’t see pages, really; they see bits.

3) Think top-down, like a newspaper — big news rst,less important as the page descends, the invertedtriangle. It sounds obvious, but the viewer can’t seethe page all at once.

4) Limit your links. A page with 50 links each leadingto 50 links puts 2,500 destinations within two clicks.

People can’t process that many options! Focus yourchoices, too. It’s easier to decide between two shirtsthan bleu cheese, a new soa, and a back rub.

5) Be consistent. I your navigation button is in 11-ptVerdana, upper right corner, leave it there on everypage. Imagine your car radio buttons rearrangingthemselves tomorrow.

6) Limit your onts, sizes and colors. Every dierencealters the message in some way, so don’t usedierences arbitrarily. On this page you’ll see only twotext typestyles, all black or gray or blue, a clear

hierarchy, very deliberate.

7) More o a personal opinion than design advice,avoid shocking colors that don’t occur in nature. Eveni you’re selling cotton candy, an entire screen inradioactive pink may cost your viewer his lunch.

8) Beore approving your design, ask yoursel threequestions: 1) Is it beautiul? 2) Is it simple? 3) Is itclear? You want a yes on all three.

9) #5 Part 2: Consistency is king. [Home] shouldalways be to the let or top, and [Contact Us] shouldbe to the right or bottom.

10) “Simple” duplicate menu at the bottom o thepage, so the user doesn’t have to scroll back up to goto the next page.

11) Logo should always be an active link to the Homepage.

12) A site that exceeds 10 pages should considerhaving a unctional search eature or a site map. Thisis so visitors can have another way to nd what they

are looking or other than navigating on their own.

13) I you are going to use dynamic design tactics,input in alternate capabilities or the users who haveJavascript turned o. Usability and accessibility,combined with the wow actor rom design — thisormula results in the ultimate website.

14) Web sites tend to all into one o six categories:1) E-commerce (unction: to sell products, tickets,etc.)2) Corporate (unction: to provide inormation aboua company, its products and services)3) News (unction: to deliver real-time inormationon current aairs, weather, stock prices, etc. — maybe specic to a particular TV network, newspaper oradio station)4) Inormation (unction: to inorm users on specictopics; e.g., online encyclopedia, city inormation,etc.)5) Entertainment (unction: to provide entertainmen

interactivity with games, video clips, music, etc.)6) Personal (unction: to share individual thoughts,experiences and interests)

• Realize that only 30% of your visitors are actuallygoing to “land” rst on your home page (Nielsen datwhich is why navigation is so important.

• Tell your clients that they need to have a focusedmessage that jumps out at visitors throughout thewebsite, and that navigation needs to refect that kemessage. Otherwise, they’ll create cacophony andchaos (too many shouting voices in a crowd and yo

can’t hear anything anymore).

• To explain why they need to start the page contenwith the most important elements, I tell my clients (Ellen mentioned) to think newspapers and “above thfold,” and I tell them that only 30% of visitors actualscroll down (Nielsen data again).

• Beg your clients to keep texts short. People don’tread on the web, they “scan” the rst 3-4 words oeach paragraph to see i they are interested (Nielseneye-tracking studies). So clients should edit down arst time to shorten to the essential . . . and then eddown again! . . . And start paragraphs with key word

• BEST TIP FOR THE END: Yes, people struggle toorganize their website content. What has workedwonders or me is the ollowing: Get the client’s keydecision-makers together or three hours (tell themhow essential it is), and have them go through the“Post-it-notes exercise” (I call it). Their objective is tbuild the whole architecture (with sections andsub-sections) on the wall o their conerence room,beore they leave, where each Post-it note is a singlwebpage! And get them to sign o on it!

Few Tips For Web Design