Doing Web Design Well by Howard Gerlis, MBCS, CITP
 There are many misconceptions about what makes a good website,
indeed there are many so-called experts who make a living providing
just that advice alone, but the reality is that it is not difficult
to create a web presence that is effective.
Whilst it is important to understand the technology which lies
under the bonnet of a good web design, the best results can be
achieved using commonsense.
Before you start, remember that content is king. It is no good
having a whiz-bang website if it doesn't give the audience what
they want or what you would like them to see. So, plan first,
understand the purpose and objectives of the site and be aware
of their expectations.
Consider how much the website is "fit for purpose",
good examples of web design and readability include sites such
as the BBC News (http://news.bbc.co.uk).
It is well laid out, clear, easy to navigate and interesting; drawing
the readers attention
very effectively. One of the best known websites is Google (http://www.google.com),
the search engine, used to find other websites across the Internet
and other useful resources. It demonstrates the epitome of simplicity,
with the minimum of just an input field and a few other links.
Navigation is everything. Allow the users to find what they want
quickly and without fuss. Make sure the home page, especially,
loads fast and links that links to the other parts of the site
are obvious. By contrast, make it easy for users to find their
way back to the Home page again from other pages on the site. Maybe
also include an internal keyword search facility to help users
go straight to their target nugget of information. By mininising
the number of clicks they have to make to navigate their way around
the site, they are more likely to stay there and for longer.
Things to definitely avoid, mainly because they destroy the credibility
of not only the website, but of your business, are:
- those annoying page counters showing how many "visitors" you
have had; who cares?
- an "Under Construction" banner, you
either have a website or not
- flashing & blinking things, for
business websites this can make it look tacky and is irritating to view
- out of date information;
this will immediately make the site look jaded.
 When it comes to the format of the content itself, be prepared
to spend as much effort making sure it is correct as if it were
going to be expensively printed; mistakes do not look good!
Make sure the content is well-written, interesting and relevant.
Do not allow spelling mistakes, there seems to be an acceptance
that it is alright to have typos on a website; it is not, it'll
just demonstrate carelessness, an unhelpful image for a business.
Keep consistent typefaces, use the technology in your website code
known as cascading stylesheets. Use paragraphs and spacing effectively
and input forms should be easy to understand and fill in.
Where possible, and if relevant, try to ensure that the pages
will print out in a reasonable format although having control over
this is very difficult with website technology.
Reading a screen is never as easy as the printed page, so avoid
fussy backgrounds take care when using anything other than standard
black text on a white background.
It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so ensure
any images used are well-produced and relevant to the subject matter
rather than cluttering up the page. Do not make them too big, this
will cause them to have a large file size and take longer to load
onto the page. Use the "alt" option to caption the images,
especially photos, this is the little yellow hint bubble which
appears when the cursor is hovered over the picture.
Not everyone looking at the site will have the same size screen,
so take that into account when designing the overall page layout,
it will need to fit a small size screen, say 15" with no left-to-right
scrolling. Up-down scrolling is fine.
Customers, both existing and prospective ones, need to be told
about the website, do not rely on search engines alone. Tell them
about it using traditional means, use adverts and the media, put
it on all stationery and anything customers are likely to see.
Finally, look after the website and keep it simple, it doesn't
have to be complicated to be effective.
Useful websites about good, and bad, web design:
Howard is Chairman of the British Computer Society Internet Specialist
Group, www.isg.org.uk
Cartoons courtesy of www.cartoonsforbusiness.com
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