- session - 2- SITE DESIGN

 An important aspect of the Web is design, the initial means of communication. Good design is composed of Common Sense and Functionality. It does not make sense to offer a graphically intense site if most of your visitors have an incompatible browser or are surfing with a 14, 28 or56K modem. It also does not make sense to have a complex home page that offers no valuable information, even if it does "look pretty." To make your site function efficiently, determine your purpose. Why are you creating the site? What do you want to do with it? What end results are you looking for? Now determine the necessities required to deliver this message. Leave out frivolous or extraneous things. Good design is achieved through design that provides clear goals of its purpose and functionality. Provide your users with sequential design that marks on-going activities. One of the most important points is how your visitors will navigate through your site. Are they finding what they need or getting lost in superfluous content and design? When you effectively communicate through design, you offer your visitors instant understanding. That means your design makes your products and purpose instantly recognizable.Think of a site you enjoy visiting. Why do you like it? What feelings do you recognize when you think of that site? Make good use of the light, colors and textures you use on your site. These are some of the most powerful elements that influence good design. Learn what responses are associated with different colors. For example, yellow is a cheerful color but it can also aggravate if too bright.

Pay extra close attention to your promotion copy. If you have all kinds of questions popping in your head as you read your own promotion material, so will your customers. Ask yourself a few simple questions, "What's in this for me?, "How can you fulfill your promise?", "Why should I believe you?", "What if I don't like it?". Write your promotion copy to paint a portrait of "yes, I can!" by to each question;

Only include what's necessary to your site and work toward achieving professionalism with a high degree of functionality. Remember that the best design is an ongoing process. It's not something that is achieved overnight. Perfect one aspect of your site at a time. Frames, Java and Macromedia Flash confuse search engine robots, increase download times, and affect Web utilities that count pages. Use good design techniques to prevent ruining your visitor's experience.

Keep It Simple by: Gary Jones, a sales consultant for Cannect Communications Inc.....Where did the evolution of Web sites get so off track? The Internet is filled with unmanageable, complex, slow-to-load, confusing, frustrating and pointless sites. And the goals of each of these sites appear to be providing visitors with as little useful information as possible and making any useful information that may exist impossible to find. let's get "back to the basics." The primary goal of your company Web site should not be focused on showing off the great talents of your designer. Your site should be an integral part of your overall marketing campaign and should be consistent with the theme of other marketing materials. You have less than eight seconds to grab your visitors' attention before they move on. If your wonderfully artful graphics take more than those eight seconds, no one will get to see them. Don't overwhelm your visitors with content on your opening page. Many sites ridiculously cram excessive content on their opening pages. If you were designing an eight-panel brochure about your company would you cram every single fact on the first page in a font so small no one could read it?

Do stay simple. There's not a lot of effort spent on "clicking." So, start with a simple start page &emdash; maybe break it down to your company logo and a simple catch phrase to encourage visitors to continue. Style your start page after Microsoft's "Where do you want to go today?" Also, what about thanking visitors for coming? This makes your site more interactive. It also gives your visitors a sense of control and encourages them to check out other areas of your site.provide easy navigation. After your opening page, design a "table of contents" type menu. Design your product areas with interesting content &emdash; it's okay to use the flashy stuff on these pages. Your visitor has already approved of your site and has now "come in" to take a look around. This is also the time where you must provide visitors with good information in order to keep them.

Don't make it impossible for visitors to contact you. Make follow-up contact as easy as possible. List phone numbers, email addresses and physical locations clearly. If you include personal email and phone listings, include photos of the staff listed on your site. It's a simple process and with .GIF optimization software it's easy to minimize the size of pictures. Provide lots of feedback and follow-up, and always ask visitors for permission before you email. Let visitors complete a survey commenting on your Web site, and pay attention to the feedback. Thank them for taking the time to fill out a survey.

Grading Your Web Page by David Padfield

Rulers...

Background Graphics...

Site Graphics...

Page Content...

Tables...

Plug-ins...

Updating Your Page...

Links...

How Did You Score?

If you scored above 180 points: your site is probably in the upper 10% of Web sites.

You can have a single web page and fill it with 300 key words and phrases it probably won't get a high ranking on any search engine because the actual "relevance" of each individual key word is low. Far better to have 300 web pages on your site, with a few key words repeated three times on each. Better still if a key word appears in the page title, the meta key tags, the first heading and as the first emboldened word. Each page should also contain sentences which are relevant to its subject, amounting to at least 100 words, * One at a time

For example, consider a site that sells Satellite Television accessories. There are lots of key words that people might search for in order to find such a site. You need to create a specific page for every one. Title: Satellite Television Accessories. Repeat this key phrase.. Title: Satellite Dishes. (dishes.htm)Title: Television Aerials. (aerials.htm) etc.... and so on. Each page gives some information about the specific item or subject and repeats the key word or phrase a number of imes. In Europe it is especially important to include non-English words, too, since you don't want to exclude potential sales in Germany, France, Spain....For example, the word for "Remote Control Handset" in German is "Fernbedienung". If you want to reach countries whose first language is not English then it will be worth your while to look up the most important words and add them to your page.

Every page should have a link back to the contents page. Many search engines like to find a link to themselves and such a link will increase the ranking of your site. For a list of some search engines, look at this page: http://www.satcure.co.uk/searchit.htm. Never delete a file If a web page has been registered with a number of search engines. Every time I do a search I find at least half a dozen links to files which "no longer exist". If I decide that a page is no longer relevant, I remove links TO it but I leave the page intact. I make sure there's a "This page is no longer updated" (or similar) notice and a "Return to Contents" link. This page continues to attract visitors to my web site, even though it is no longer specifically relevant. NEVER delete a file. Likewise, never delete a web site if you can possibly avoid it. I have my own "personalised" URLs now but I still maintain my original web site because its pages are registered with hundreds of search engines.Whenever you send an e-mail message, make sure your signature includes your web site URL. * Put it on your stationery and vehicles. Print your web site URL in as many places as possible. Put it on your company stationary, your vehicles, free gifts, products, brochures and anything else that people see.