8 Pointers on Web Design

Submited on Mon, 07/18/2011, by davyin
in

Based on our years of web design experience and recent frustrations from working on a few large projects, we would like to share some of our professional advice and expertise when it comes to designing a good website for clients. If you want to have a website designed with a clean but flashy look, below are some tips for what-not-to-do:

1. Don't Look Cheap

Cheap design gives a cheap corporate image. A website's like a woman, she'll want more shoes, bags… don't keep her on a budget. The better she dresses, the better she looks on your arm. A good website costs money and the best websites have a whole team just managing the site.

2. Know Your Target Market

The Lady Gaga look for your site won't sell it with a Reggae crowd. In other words don't put Flash and creative effects for a site thats designed for 40 year-old engineers. Keep it simple to their culture and generation.

3. Garbage In = Garbage Out.

Make sure each page in your website has something valuable to offer. Valuable content is key, enough said.

4. Simplicity, Simplicity, Simplicity

Don't distract your visitors with an overkill of blinking or scrolling text, animated images, or worse, auto-loading sound. Keep it simple and clean.

5. China Bandwidth (Site Performance)

The internet speed in China is slow. There's also the China Firewall. Most users will never get to see those fancy effects and will not wait to see your 10 minute video.

6. Tacky Popups Are a NO

Nobody likes popups. Don't annoy your visitors with pop-up windows. There's enough of those on the internet already. Popups signal a spam site.

7. Have Organized Visibility

Make it easy for site visitors to find what they are looking for. Use menu systems that are visible throughout the site ( Primary Menus, Secondary Menus, Footer Menus) Nobody likes the hassle of finding what they want on your site.

8. Large Image Backgrounds = So Yesterday

Don't use HD image backgrounds, they take a toll on load times. Large image backgrounds scream "amateur" and visitors could see thumbnails or small images and still get the point / information.

davyin
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