Designing Good Websites

Over the past decade I have seen thousands of websites all across the internet and often wonder why some stood out more than others. It’s not always some artist pumping out brilliant graphics, nor is it informative content, but a combination of elements working together. Here’s a list of elements I personally think truly make websites stand out but also make them look good:

Layout

It’s important to have a very good layout that’s very easy to follow but also consistent throughout the website. There are many occasions where for example designers hide their navigation in unreasonable ways only because it may improve their overall design. It seems like many designers don’t understand that the majority of people online aren’t as savvy as they are, so following design trends which may appeal to one group may not to another. If you target a large audience, it’s important to keep this in mind. Remember the late 90’s and early 00’s? That very tiny font we – designers loved so much and have gotten so much complains about? At that time of course it was very fashionable, but only ‘til about mid 00’ CSS was the new “thing” and finally became a hit ending the small-font crisis.

Margins and paddings are probably the most significant to note when it comes to the layout. If you’re going to pad your content, make sure it’s consistent throughout the site. I always hated when a beautiful design has no padding and no margin, the text or image just hangs on the top right corner but lucky for me I have my Firebug – so as I browse random sites, I actually fix them just to keep myself happy. I don’t recommend this, but I can’t stop you. And If you’re like me, high five, because you probably know what I’m talking about.

Colors

Learn your colors! There’s so many websites that seems to have a good layout, and then you notice something very unusual, a disgusting red background and a horrifying blue font – come on! Today, you don’t even need to really ‘find’ colors anymore, here’s a link to a very useful tool made by Adobe called Kuler. It’s free.

Usability

If you have forms, if you’re working with multiple browsers, and if you have a lot of pages – make sure it all works. Use JavaScript to validate your forms, because when angry users or customers run into an error, you’ve got to be extra sure they hate themselves in the end. And please don’t write sarcastic errors like “Come on, forgot your password ‘again’?” then you might start getting calls. Make sure your site works on every browser, not just Firefox. It’s very stressful when it comes to this, we all know it but you must do whatever you can to make your website work everywhere. These days, you might want to consider having your site function via mobile devices too.

Content

If the site has a good layout, good colors that are complimentary to another, you’ve good usability going on – people are bound to stay a little bit longer, however, that’s only if you have the content. Imagine walking into a 5-star hotel only to discover nobody is there, that would ruin anyone’s vacation. Of course, websites are no vacation, most people walk in angry so you better have everything there. Content isn’t always text, it can also be images, videos, files. So how can you make your site look like Sony or Nike? Rich content! Hire a professional photographer, have unique content, because you can only go so far with stocks.

Hopefully this will help you design a better website. Good luck web designers!