Web Design - Good, Bad and Ugly
A Web Hosting Article Contributed by Raj Rao
Web Design - Purpose
The purpose of Web Design is the induce the web visitors to respond to your message on the Internet. The response from visitors directly affects your business and hence a good Web Design is critical for the success of your website.
Web Design is not a pretty picture but a function of complex integration of graphics, photographs, programming code, text and interactive elements. Each of these elements contribute to the success of the Web Design.
The proportion of each of these elements depends entirely on the purpose of the website and the target audience. For instance, a website for industrial equipment need not have high-end graphics and interactive elements, as the the main purpose of the visitors is to gather additional commercial and technical information. However, this information needs to be presented in a neat and orderly manner which is part of the Web Design.
Success of the Web Design depends on the skills of the Web Designer and the business acumen of the owner of the website.
Web Design - Skills Required
In order to have an effective web design strategy, you should have in depth knowledge of the target audience as well as the Internet Technology, combined with a good aesthetic sense.
Over use of any element in the Web Design like Graphics or Text or Multimedia can become counterproductive to the purpose of the website.
Therefore, the critical skill required for Web Design is moderation and knowledge of the preferences of the target audience.
For instance, if your target audience is predominantly children, then a purely textual presentation of your website could be an obstacle for keeping your audience interested in the website and promote the same by word-of-mouth. On the other hand if your target audience is an adult then a website with too many flash animations and graphics all over the page, may get too distracting to the viewer to read any relevant information on the web page. Hence a sense of proportion and design balance is very crucial in web design.
Web Design - Tips to Avoid Bad and Ugly
As a thumb rule, always use computer graphics moderately. Excessive use of graphics in addition to slowing down the website, also distracts the audience from your message.
Your text should be legible and should preferably be in black over a white background. Text that is written in light colors over light background or dark colors over dark background constitute the biggest threat to a good design.
The design of the website should be in line with the purpose of the website. For instance, an online e-commerce site should include photographs of the product being sold along with description and price. For high-end technical products, animated graphics could be used in place of photographs.
Colors used in the Web Design should project the emotion that you intend to convey to your target audience. For instance, warm colors should be used when designing a website for a charity or a voluntary site.
Navigation of the website is an important aspect of the Web Design. The navigation should not only be easy but also logical. At every stage, the visitor must have an idea of where she is and how to get back to other links.
A Bad website is one that pushes the visitor away, an Ugly website is an obstacle to get the visitor back on your site, a good website is one that not only pulls visitors but makes them stay!
