Wish to have some change on personal or business front..a
house makeover...some shopping...some gift ideas..selling your
products..rendering your own services to earn. One is your requirement and the
other is your fulfilling someone's requirement. so what's common in both ?? You
have a need..hit google and find out solutions for your requirement..so do
others, so when they have a need you wish to be elegantly visible to them to be
able to reach out to them to fulfill their need. What's common is - online availability
and thats through a WEBSITE.So, here, I would discuss some basic features of the same.
An appealing website...Whats that??
I have come forth websites that have components that are
well designed but not well executed. A nice header with some sound effects, it
looked very nice when I first opened the site, very expressive. I click on
navigation bar to reach another page of the site, there begins the header all
over again and again each time..it was annoying than being appealing!! A few
pages and you or your visitor might not look into what all he can get from you. SO such few issues
that need to be taken care of –
1.
Music -
Choose music as per the website industry
music for a spa cannot be put into a site displaying a children play school or
a corporate business or a rock band. Until n unless the site is for a music
station or the like, music replaying on each page should be avoided .
2.
Fonts and
colors - Fonts for a website is almost
like speaking to your online audience.... so speak , don’t shout!! Too big
fonts and very bright colors is like shouting. Who likes that?? Be soft, polite,
pleasing...expressive. Colors should be uniform all throughout the site to
create a kind of brand identity.
3.
Pop-up windows and overlapping message layers –
That can be the worst thing on a website for a visitor. He’s there looking out
for may be something particular, he might be short of time or something. Do not
lose him by forcing him to read your messages. Keep them in highlight somewhere
not hiding your website info behind them.
4.
E-commerce sites – If thats what you own, win
trust by providing enough information and make it easy for the visitor to
travel through your online shoppe and come out as easily for payment.
5. Cross
– browser compatability -it will look more or less the same in all of the existing web browsers. The most commonly used browsers are Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Firefox and Opera. Each one of these browser implements HTML,
JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) a little differently. So,
it becomes important that the site is so coded
and checked on the validator so as it looks more or less the same in all
browsers. Look for your site being W3C validated too hand in hand.
6
8.
Navigation and footer - All elements on the page are equally
important. I have heard clients as well as designers say ...put this in the
footer..how does it matter!! It does! Big forums, blogs or any sites usually put up their help center or FAQs in
the footer, addrress in the footer...at times social networking links in the
footer, because footer too is important. It not only gives a complete look to
the site but also helps share more information at first glance rather than
visitor needing to hunt for it within the site pages. So, be sure navigation at
top or side as well as footer should be balanced with information and looks.
So, next time you go for a website design or redesign, keep
in mind to be practically available to your visitors :-)
