30 June 2009
We tell you why it pays to get your website designed by experts.

Not all websites are the same. Blimey, that was a bit of an obvious statement wasn't it!

Well yes it was, but yes it was also very, very true.

The internet is a wonderful creation, and there are millions if not billions of websites out there, so there's certainly a lot to look at. But how many times have you visited a site and either you've been put off by its complete amateurism, or you've gone to another site because its simply not worked? It's a fact that a user can navigate away from a website in a matter of seconds if it doesn't give the right signals.

Users expect a website to load fast, have a clear sense of organisation and layout, be easy to navigate, and offer relevant content. Got all of this? You can stop reading now then. If not, then please read on...

If you want visitors to come back to your site again and again, then you need to make sure that your website makes them feel comfortable. A newcomer to your site should instantly be able to see where your important site links are without having to look around and find them. Your main site links should be very obvious and stand out, without over-powering the rest of the page content. Placing these towards the top of a page is usually the best option.

The core messages of the website should also be extremely visible, such as your company tagline, the page headline, and any calls-to-action on the page. You want a user to instantly be able to see what you're trying to tell or show them, so great site design is important in trying to get your message across.

A user shouldn't have to click too many times in order to get where they want to go. Nobody wants to click 10 times to get to the product they want to buy, and theres nothing worse than going round in circles because the page navigation isn't clear enough, or the breadcrumb hasn't been planned out properly.

Colour choice is also important, and choosing the right colour scheme can be the difference between a relaxing site appearance and one that annoys by being either too contrasting, or having text thats hard to read, or indeed featuring too many bold colours which all drown each other out and make the site look cluttered.

Graphics should be smooth, crisp, well optimised and used intelligently. Clever use of imagery can give visitors the "wow" factor, and the importance of good photography should not be ignored. At the other end of the scale, un-compressed files can take ages to download, and badly optimised graphics can let any sense of professionalism go right out the window.

Your website could be the first impression you give to new customers, so try to make it a good one :)