It is no news that there are generally two ways most people assess and determine how a good website design is. They are—first—usability (which addresses functionality, the effective presentation of information, and efficiency). And second, there is the purely aesthetic perspective, which is all about presentation, compelling animations, and hot graphics.
Some designers are usually more focused on the aesthetics and graphics that they forget about the user, while other usability professionals get caught up in their user testing that they give little or no thought to visual appeal. So to reach or capture the interest of a vast majority of people, it is essential to maximize both approaches. And if you are looking for a good program that will give you a proficient handle on that, then visit CareerFoundry.
Communication
The most crucial thing to bear in mind when designing is that design is all about “communication.” If you go through the hurdles of creating a web site that functions and presents information well but looks bizarre or is in contrast to the customers brand, no one will be willing to patronize it, likewise, if you create a lovely web site that is not usable or readily accessible, the public may not be able to use it. In truth, the attributes and functionality of a well-made website design should work as a single harmonic unit so that users are immediately drawn and pleased with the design, but at the same time drawn to the content.
Reading Time
One significant concern for usability gurus is the time it takes for users to look at a page and deduce the information they want, be it a backlink to another page, a piece of content, or an offer page. The design should not be a stumbling block, but rather should act as a catalyst between the user and the information they are after.
Navigation
A navigation block should be a clear and concise indicator that allows the user to know exactly how to browse your website. Imagine you are going on the road to an area you have never been to before without any road signs or map for that matter—there is no second-guessing that it will be more of a nightmare than an enjoyable trip. Similarly, when a new user is visiting your web site for the first time, he or she wants to be able to see the conspicuous navigation block that will allow for easy maneuverability on your web site environment.
Basically a navigation structure that not only changes appearance when the mouse is hovered above it but also one that indicates the active page, section or sequence in order to enable the users to know where they are and how to get to where they want to go (on your web site).
Fluidity
In the case where there is a big difference between the homepage and the rest of the site, a harmonious theme or pattern should cut across all the pages of the site to help hold the design structure together. It is understandable that sometimes the content blocks on some sites might be divided differently, but there should still be several visual indicators that let users know that these are pages from the same sites.
A trick to always achieving this unity is to make sure that there is a repetition of the identity and navigation blocks. And this can easily be achieved by using very limited colour palette like black, white, cyan and green in unifying the pages.
Containing block
All web pages often have a container. And these containers can be in the form of the page’s body tag, an all-encompassing div tag, or a table. It is obvious that without some sort of container, we would have no place to put the contents of our page. The attributes would float beyond the bounds of our browser window and off into the void.
The breadth of the container can be fluid, meaning that it expands to fill the width of the browser window or stationary, so that the content has a similar width no matter the size of the window.
Logo
When designers make reference to an identity, they are often referring to the logo and colours that exist across an organisation’s various marketing forms, such as complementary business cards, letterhead, press releases, white papers, etc.
The identity block that is visible on the web site should contain the company’s logo or name, and rest at the apex of each page of the web site. The identity block does the job of radiating the brand and letting users know that the page they are viewing is still part of a single site.
Content
I’m sure you must have come across the saying; “content is king.” This is not surprising, as the internet has become over saturated and flooded with both useful and useless information on a daily basis. These have precipitated the demand for valid and useful content to be on the rise.
A classic web site visitor will enter and leave your web site in a matter of seconds if they can’t seem to find valuable content on your site. This is a normal response,—-just take a minute and put yourself in their shoes. If you were to visit a site searching for valuable info which you don’t happen to find, you will undoubtedly close the browser or move on to another site.
That is why it is essential to keep the main content block as the centre of interest of a design, so that priceless time isn’t wasted as visitors scan the page on your site for the information they need.
Footer
In conclusion, this is often situated at the bottom of the page. It is usually reserved for information such as copyright, legal information, terms and conditions, as well as some links to the top of the page or the main parts of the site. When the end of the content is separated from the bottom of the browser window, the footer should clearly indicate to users that they have reached the bottom of the page.
