A good website design will play an important part in whether your business is a success.

It needs to be easy to use and informative.  It could be your first point of contact with potential and existing visitors, therefore presenting a professional look could be the deciding factor between a customer staying and buying from you or clicking onto your competitor’s website.  Everything a person sees on your website should portray an image that is consistent and instills confidence. 

Here are a few pointers that make a good website design.

Basic Design Principles

• Use a limited number of colours (see our choosing colours guide)
• The use of contrasting colours will help make text on your web pages more legible e.g. black writing on a white background
• Try not to make your site overcomplicated (cluttered) or with too much text.  People scan websites rather than reading them
• Make use of white space
• Use short sentences and paragraphs.  The use of headings and bullet points will focus visitor’s attention on the information you want them to know
• Make sure every image or picture you use has a purpose
• Avoid pop ups

Home Page

• Make sure your logo and business name are clearly visible.  Have a brief statement outlining what your business/service is, and/or what it does (25-30 words)
• Have you got a clearly, visible call to action i.e. do you want them to phone you or e-mail you for a quote, enquiry etc
• Keep the content to a minimum.  Only include what your visitors really need to know, you can use the other pages on your website to add more detail
• Research shows that most people like to see information in chunks of 3 e.g. (show screen shot of homepage)
• Try to keep the number of choices a visitor has to no more than 7 e.g. choices on your navigation bar

On your web pages

• Your company logo and call to action should appear consistently on every page
• Your company logo should link back to your home page
• Navigation should appear consistently on every page.  Navigation generally appears near the top and/or down the left-hand side
• Visitors should know what page they are on e.g. changing the colour of the navigation tab or breadcrumb navigation (homepage – services – website design)
• A consistent layout of pages, especially product pages, will allow easy browsing
• The most important information is always above the fold (can be seen without having to scroll down) 

About us page

• Should have a company description, background and history
• Could include a mission statement
• Include information about the team or employees – you can include a photo or drawing of each member, this helps your visitors know who they are working with 

Contact us page

• Ensure there is a link for this on every page or somewhere within the text
• Include all contact details – landline number, mobile phone number, e-mail address, fax, business address, VAT number
• You could embed a Google map for free to show your location
• Include a contact form, make this as simple as possible by only asking for the information you really need
• Include information about data protection
• Inform your visitors if you are on Twitter, facebook, or Linked in

Should I use flash?
Flash is the animation you see on websites.  It can look very good and allows you to make your website look more interesting and allows you to showcase your products or services in a visually, appealing way. 
However, the use of too much flash could possibly cause a few problems, such as:

• Slowing down the download speed of your website.  Visitors to your website will want it to appear straight away.  Making them wait, even a few seconds, could make potential visitors to your site impatient, causing them to click away onto a competitor’s site.
• Search engines like Google, can’t read flash.  Therefore it is not very good for your search engine optimisation (SEO). 

Take a look at our services to find out how Next Big Leap can help you get a website you can be proud of.