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WEB DESIGN ARTICLES |
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| Designing
a user friendly website |
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| Summary
- Here are some points to be kept in mind
while designing a website that easy to browse
through and serves its ultimate purpose of
providing information. |
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Legibility.
Content is the king, this is not to be forgotten
ever! Any user coming to your website is there
to get some information. If that information
is hard to get, user will leave your website
and go to Google to find out an alternate
source.
Legibility of text is one of the most important
things to be kept in mind. Selection of appropriate
font-size and keeping adequate contract between
text and background are too things that should
always be kept in mind while making a website
template.
Some researchers even claim that restricting
font size by using CSS (where the design specifies
a fixed font size value) is another thing
that irritates users who like to customize
the font size as per their visibility preferences.
Always keeping target user segment in mind
while deciding the font-size.
Standardize
navigation |
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- Always distinguish hyperlinked text
from normal body text. Don't forget to
differentiate visited and unvisited links.
- Include some of the key information-carrying
terms in the anchor text itself to explain
what users will find at the other end
of the link. This will also aid in search
engine optimization (SEO).
- Try to avoid opening pages in new windows.
A lot of PC owners have their pop-ups
blocked, while the ones who don't, feel
lost when a new window opens.
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Use
of Media Elements
Flash and other media elements such as video,
MP3 etc. should be used only when there is
a need. Flash can be used to emphasize key
information or better still to demonstrate
some functionality. The latest version of
Flash is has amazing features to add functionality
to a website.
So, the idea is to use media elements sensible
and if-and-when required. Despite such good
intentions, most of the Flash that Web users
encounter each day is bad Flash with no purpose
beyond annoying people. The one bright point
is that splash screens and Flash intros are
almost extinct. They are so bad that even
the most clueless Web designers won't recommend
them, even though a few (even more clueless)
clients continue to request them.
Browser compatibility
This must be the most annoying task for a
web designer. Although a lot of browser incompatibility
issues have been taken care in past 2-3 years,
but even now we see some minor disagreements
between the leading web browsers.
You like it or not, web users choose to browse
web on the browser of their choice. So rather
than turning them away just because they use
a different platform, it is a must to design
a website that performs reasonable alike on
major web browsers (IE and Firefox for sure)
Form Pages
Try to keep your forms short and to the point.
Big forms, featuring too many unnecessary
questions and options tend to irritate a user.
Try top cut all the questions that are really
not needed. For example, do you really to
know the first and last names in separate
text boxes? |
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| Get
your website
analyzed for FREE to know what additional
functionalities can be added to it. If you
already know what functionality the web site
requires, request
a FREE quote now to get a detailed proposal. |
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