“Your site should be easy to navigate; visitors should be able to quickly locate the information they require with ease. Don't assume that your visitors will intuitively know what your site contains, sign–post it clearly with descriptive text and graphics.”
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A well cut suit in a classic fabric will last the wearer decades. Likewise, a well thought out, cleanly designed website will go the distance and outlive fads and trends.
The most important points to bear in mind when designing your website follow :
your audience
Who is going to visit your website? How can you make it a useful, compelling and positive experience for them? Consider your user and their journey at all times. Have a clear idea of your own goals (to provide a service or information, to sell your products or services etc).
accessibility
Consider, also, users with text–only browsers or disabilities that make it impossible for them to see your images or experience the rich media on your website. Provide text alternatives and transcripts wherever possible. Inclusive design is not only a courtesy, it is required by law under the Disability Discrimination Act.
A compliant website will benefit you, too. An accessible site is a search engine friendly site.
navigation
Your site should be easy to navigate; visitors should be able to quickly locate the information they require with ease. Don't assume that your visitors will intuitively know what your site contains, sign–post it clearly with descriptive text and graphics. Your designer will be able to offer you a variety of choices and advice as to how this can be achieved.
images
Your photographs should be of good quality. Ideally, images should be sent in high resolution digital format to your designer.
If you do not have high quality photographic images, then consider other forms of visual representation — illustration, for example. Our Case Study of Windsor Glass is a good example of the effectiveness of this approach.
buttons
These are graphic links — they can be in the form of images or text. If you have a logo, you may wish to create buttons that are in keeping with your image. Prices start at *£5 for a basic button.
domain name
Let us imagine that your web site is a motor car. Your domain name would be your license plates; the means by which you are identified. Domain names are snapped up daily; so the challenge to come up with the right one means acting quickly.
Try to use a descriptive domain name such as noveltycakes.co.uk if you find that your first choice (yourname.co.uk) is already taken. See our links page for more information on domain names. A domain costs around *£20.00 for two years.
hosting
If your web page can be likened to a vehicle, then you need to have a garage or bay in which to park it! This is where hosting come in. Prices start at around *£30 p.a. for 20MB space, which includes a POP3 email address (e.g. info@noveltycakes.co.uk).
download time
Your site should load quickly. During optimization of graphics for the web, some quality may be lost, but your designer will always attempt to get the best quality image at the lowest possible download time.
animation & special effects
Special effects should be used carefully. Too many bells and whistles can be distracting. Useability studies and human computer interaction theory have revealed that most users are put off by visual noise. Use animation sparingly and strategically, unless you offer interactive artefacts, such as games, polls, quizes and so forth.
While it’s tempting to want to make use of interactive technologies, the most important points to bear in mind are to select the most relevant visual representation for your website, and to consider your users at all times.
Let your designer guide you in this respect. See our page on animation for advice on — and examples of — using animation effectively.
site content
Divide your content into logical sections. We can guide you through the information architectural process. All content must be sent to the designer in electronic form. You can email it as an attachment in Word format, or you can cut and paste the content into the body of an email. If you require your designer to type out, create, proofread or edit your content, be prepared to pay extra for this.
content management
If you anticipate that you will be changing text and/or images regularly, you should consider a content management system. This will allow you to change your content yourself.
See Content Management for further information and prices.
spelling & grammar
Don't forget to run a spell check through your content before you submit it to the designer. An obvious point, you may think, but it's surprising how little details like this can be overlooked. Spelling errors on websites give a bad impression. You are responsible for the content on your website, so it is important to proof your web pages before signing them off.
logo
If you already have a logo, it must be sent to the designer in electronic form. Scanning can reduce the quality. If you would like to have a logo designed, prices are around *£40 per hour for this service.
typography
All computers have a set of default fonts, for example, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman. Your designer will select a hierarchy of complementary fonts for your body text.
Bear in mind that different computers have different system fonts, so that your website may look slightly different on other computers. Also that there are differences between Apple Macs and PCs when it comes to displaying text (and colours).
fonts
If you decide that you would like your body text in an unusual font — and, more importantly, if there is very little text — this can be created as an image. Doing so increases download time slightly, which is why this method should only be used for a paragraph or two.
However, as broadband becomes ubiquitous, this issue becomes less important. But remember that search engines index text, and if possible always provide a text alternative. (See Search Engines for more information).
* All prices subject to confirmation.
