1. Keep the navigation simple
Make sure your navigation is well laid out as tabs or as bar across the top or as a top left layout… this is where most users expect to see it. Leave lots of space between the menu headings so they are easy to read.
2. Do not use music on your website
Although music is great to set the mood of your website, it is not needed. With a good design you can set the mood without adding music to it. Keep in mind that a lot of people are looking for websites at work while the boss is not looking, when they get to your website, there is a good chance the music will surprise them and they will close your website just as quickly as they opened it. This is called the bounce rate. If you have a high bounce rate and you have music on your website, the best way to help resolve that, would be to remove the music.
3. Don’t ever use a splash page
A splash page is a page that precedes your website. Splash pages are useless to users since they are usually just some graphics or minimal text that that says welcome to my website. You have worked hard to get users to your website, so don’t make it difficult for them to actually see your content once they get there.
4. Make sure your website is cross browser compatible
Not everyone uses Internet Explorer as their main internet browser. Today about 39% of users are browsing the internet with Internet Explorer, however, 46% of users are on Firefox. That is a large audience you are missing if your website does not work on that browser. Some other common browser types are Chrome (from Google) and Safari. If you check your website in all 4 of those browsers, you will reach about 98% of the users surfing the web.
5. Create Lists
People rarely like to read paragraph after paragraph of justified text. Break your information into lists and link to those paragraphs instead. Lists are easier on your user’s eyes and it is much easier for them to get to the information they are looking for.
6.Make sure your website loads quickly.
You don’t want your users to feel like they have gone back to the days of “dial-up” Internet. Research has shown that users judge your website in about 50 milliseconds ( less than ½ of a second)
Tags: Website Design
