So you need a web site. How does one go about designing a
web site? What makes a good design?
As with most design projects, personal taste plays an
important role. However, there is a general procedure that one follows, and
general web design guidelines that one can use.
Design Styles
Web sites make use of HTML (hypertext markup language) which
inherently results in pages that are rectangular in layout. This page is
an example of a rectangular layout. It is functional, easy to create.
Many
designers like to create pages where the emphasis is on looking interesting.
This requires a graphical layout. This type of page is typically designed
using a graphics program and offers many more layout possibilities. The downside
is that it is very time consuming and hence more expensive.
Design Process
The starting point is to develop a functional
specification for the web site. In the specification we look at three
aspects: your corporate identity, your target audience, and your objectives.
corporate identity
Your corporate colours and logo will feature prominently in the design. For
example one expects to see blue in IBM's web site and red in Coca Cola's site.
target audience The target audience influences the style of language, graphics, fonts, etc.
So a web site targeting Wall Street executives will look different from a web
site targeting snow boarders.
objectives In this section of the specification we describe what the web site is
expected to achieve. There are many possibilities: inform, entertain, sell
products, create brand awareness, educate, collect statistical data, etc.
Once
the specification has been compiled, the second step is to determine the
structure and pages that will be required to implement the web site
specification. This is typically done in the form of a block diagram or
site map.
Then one designs a typical page layout for the web site. It
will reflect the requirements ("look and feel") identified in the specification.
This page is referred to as the site template and will be used to design
all the pages in the web site. This ensures a consistent look and feel.
The Text (Copy)
The client normally provides the text for most of the web
site pages. The client is the expert on their products or services. However, in
many cases the text provided by the client has been designed for printed
documents, and need to be revised for the web - the way we read information
on-line is quite different from the way we read printed information.
Programming
Many web sites require programming - implementing e-commerce
would be an example. Programming is expensive and can add considerably to the
overall cost.
Maintainability
One needs to build maintainability into the web site design.
This will minimize the cost of keeping the web site updated, and often also
reduces the initial cost.
Animation
In the early days of the Web, people were still excited by
new things. Today most of us are overwhelmed by the amount of information
available and the lack of time to read everything. Most of us want to get to the
information with the least amount of fuss - and no gimmicks!
Animated icons used to be cute but... When an element on a
page is animated for no specific reason, it is really just a gimmick and should
be avoided. Animation technology like Flash, is very powerful, and allows
one to build interactivity into a page as illustrated by the somewhat frivolous
example below:
