Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:04:22 +0000

In the matter of website design what to do first, a person who is contemplating starting a website or some sort of blog and who thinks that he or she might like to take a crack at designing it needs to keep a few things in mind. First of all, anyone interested in designing a website should sit down and come up with a plan or a concept for what it should look like.

This means, of course, that no small amount of research is going to need to be done beforehand. What is meant by research is the fact that a person will need to correctly identify the market or niche that the website is going to be targeted at. Eventually designing a site that gives the viewer or reader the impression that it is about bicycles when it is really about motorcycles is just one example of intelligent website design.

Along with deciding or determining the kind of niche that the website will be targeted at should be a realization that the site must, above all else, be usable and logical to any visitor or reader who happens to land there. This can create a bit of tension between the desire to make the website look space-age or really relevant, graphics wise, and the need to also be functional and easy to maneuver around.

Those who fail to realize this simple requirement (usability) tend to have websites designed that require multiple plug-ins or that end up taking a really long time to load on a user’s computer because they are extremely heavy with graphics that cause images to load very slowly. Studies show that most viewers of a website will quickly move on if they have any sort of issue viewing that site.

This is why it is important to do the research, identify the market or niche, and then — first of all — design the site so that it is extremely usable. Most experts recommend that websites should try to make use of black text on white backgrounds if possible. If a background is desired, designers should also try to use a plain-color background or go with something that is very subtle.

This is why it will be vital to make sure that the text itself is in a printable color, meaning that while white text on a black background looks good, if it doesn’t print in some other color other than white they’re going to be many user complaints or visits to the website will quickly drop off.

In the end, the matters of website design what to do first come down to research and then usability. Conduct your research to make sure that you are coming up with a thoughtful and relevant website and then make that website extremely easy to use when visitors arrive there.

Before you start a search engine marketing campaign, go to The Brilliant Assistant’s site for information on website design and graphic design services.

Tags: advertising, Business, Business Advertising, engine optimization, Promotion, raleigh search engine marketing, search, search engine marketing, seo, services, website design, Website promotion, website traffic

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 28th, 2010 at 8:48 am and is filed under Business Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Update: Meet Jemima at Monkeys Tweetup, part of Social Media Week London.

Two years and countless coffees later Jemima Gibbons', Monkeys with Typewriters: The Myths and Realities of Social Media goes far in debunking the belief that social media is a bad influence in today's modern office; a mere distracter from the real work.

We got in touch with the lovely Jemima to find out how businesses will be incorporating social media in 2010.

The book gets to grips with social media's ability to democratise, errode value chains and remove restrictions on never-questioned-before codes of conduct. In the process it outlines a practical framework for happier, more productive working environments.

The past year has seen a year for change in how businesses understand and use social media. Most notably as a basic marketing and PR tool. We asked her how she thought things would continue to change in 2010:

Jemima:  On the one hand, we'll see savvy businesses really capitalising on the low cost, easy to use nature of social tools, and using these tools to collaborate and innovate. We'll see social media being used in collaborative partnerships as businesses team together to beat the recession. On the other hand, the downturn will cause more short-sighted companies to use sm as a scapegoat and we'll no doubt see increasing bans on social networking during working hours etc as bosses do whatever they can to 'improve' efficiency and reduce costs.

There is a lot of talk on the detriments of email in Monkeys with Typewriters and the "broken trust" connotations its use has. But will 2010 really usher in social media for internal comms and the end of the much maligned email?

Jemima:  Email is just one means of communication and needs to be seen as one of many equally valid options rather than the default tool. The more successful businesses will be those that work in a simple, open way but there will always be others who let themselves get bogged down in complexity and opaque processes.

Chinwag: Do you think there will be more innovation in working practises. More of a move towards an open and collaborative way of doing things?

Jemima I think the real innovation in the next year will take place outside business, much like the dotcom crash of 2000/01 resulted a few years later in the boom in social sites due to out of work but talented people focusing on building fun stuff that mattered to them rather than worry about making money. We'll see a whole raft of innovative ideas come from that space, rather than business per se. Having said that, social entrepreneurship will continue to be a massive growth area, we can expect to see a lot of innovation around the area of social change.

Some things to ponder in 2010.

Monkeys with Typewriters: Myths and Realities of Social Media at Work is available to buy now.

Picture courtesy of Benjamin Ellis. Some rights reserved.