Tools Of The Trade For Web Design; Four Useful Tips

Making a good website design is comparable to art, as it is a subjective topic and varies between the creators as well as the users. Making an attractive, robust and user friendly website can be challenging and something learned through experience only.

After talking with many web developers, we have learned that even after years of experience, they are still trying to wrap their head around what makes a website a great experience. In addition, we have put together a comprehensive list of four useful tips to keep on top of your mind when making a website.

• Keep it simple

One of the biggest mistakes made by developers is that they tend to tunnel vision on making their website to have lots of functionality, without thinking from a user’s point of view. Having lots of moving parts working well on your website is great, the problem is if your viewer finds your page overwhelming and with too much clutter, they may not even bother staying on your web page.

Most research has shown that user-retention tends to plummet due to the more things a website has on display on its front page. Making a great first impression and capturing attention is all about favoring a smart design over the tones of features.

• Test your website first

Before you host a website, make sure to have it checked for errors. Some of the problems won’t show up until the website is in its full form. There may be a runtime bug or a problem with the formatting on different resolutions.

To avoid this, have a look at your website on different browsers as well as on different machines. Certain platforms may have a problem running your code correctly and it is best to root out these issues before launching a final form.

• Use search engine optimization

A website is only as good as the number of people who visit it. So why not increase it by doing some basic optimization for the popular search engines. Using SEO is the best way to do it.

Add keywords to your pages and text and update the tags to be attractive for most search engines. You can work with marketing experts who know how to do this best. But do make sure to keep your website looking natural and fluid, and not cluttered with keywords. As we discussed in our first point, cluttering your page is the easiest way to make a bad looking website that the users will turn away from.

• Take feedback

A lot of websites out there have an optional section for feedback. This is a great feature to add to your site.

Ask your visitors what they think about the website. Let them rate and describe what they liked and disliked while going through your web page. Do make sure that giving feedback is optional, and doesn’t interrupt or harm their experience in any way.

There are also some indirect ways of getting feedback. Monitor the traffic and see which page the users spend time on the most, and which ones are not having a lot of activity.

This article is from a web design company in Karachi and is written by Jacqueline Smith.