Loading... What are some things a webmaster can do to make sure their site's design is effective?

Ideally, develop goals and objectives for the site before starting the design. For example, should the site be primarily informational, an e-commerce site, or something else? Also, do an audience analysis so you have some idea of the target users for the site. A site for kids to play games will look quite and behave quite differently than one for selling motorcycle parts.

After thinking through these things, create storyboards or paper prototypes. Test with a small sample of users that are similar to the target users review them. Some design flaws will be immediately apparent.

Take the results, and modify your design to improve it.

Hi Melbel

Sheesh. I can go on for hours on this topic. There are way too many things to consider when discussing an effective website. Effective is different for every niche, every type of business and every long term vision. I don't typically post links in forums or hub replies - as a matter of fact, I never do.... but if you visit some of the pages at http://www.es-interactive.com and read all about "credibility + visibility", you will find a plethora of information. If you don't want to post this reply because of the link, I completely understand. But this site does more than just throw visuals at you; and it does more than simply boast about being good. It discusses, in a lot of detail, a lot of considerations, real experiences and information that is key to building a winning website.

Make sure things are easy to find (most important pages on the menu bar).

Make sure the colors flow, so it's easy on the eyes.

Don't use tons of different font colors/sizes, it looks unprofessional and is hard on the eyes. Sometimes it turns off viewers and they leave.

Make things well organized and spaced.

Hope this helps.

Funny thing is I just wrote and published an eBook on this subject on Amazon. A website design guide. There are many aspects to consider but one of the first is to work out exactly what you want your website to do for you, e.g. is it just a company catalogue, or do you want to use it to gain more business, is it for personal use or a charitable cause. The list goes on but depending on the answer to that question you will know much better what you need to do to make the site effective and deliver what you want from it. Of course there are lots of other aspects to consider:

effective navigation that users and search engines can follow

optimization for search engines e.g. communicating the topics of the pages, load speeds etc.

ease of updating and maintenance

appeals to the target audience, style wise and formatting

uses a reliable host that has little or no downtime

functions at all levels

conforms to website design standards (disability access for example)

delivers on the promise, i.e. people find what they are looking for when they visit

That's a little bit of an insight into what a webmaster has to consider when putting a design together.

Good question by the way.

Brian

You need check if it is made on web 2.0 standard, which includes following things:

1) Website should be attractive

2) Content must be well placed into the website

3) Broken link should not be there in the website

4) Website coding must be W3C compliant

5) Website should be user friendly in context of the website page links and its structure

6) Images used in the website must represent the website is all about

7) Fast loading must be another preference given while developing the website.

Every webmaster should follow these points while developing any website.