A word about music or other sounds autoplaying on a website… Don’t! This was all the rage a while back and there are still sites doing it. Autoplaying music is less common today, but replacing it has been video and virtual assistants suddenly talking to you. While it can certainly get a visitor’s attention, it may very well irritate him in the process. Maybe he was streaming an online radio station while he surfed the web and you just interrupted his favorite song. Or in the case of autoplaying music, perhaps your visitors don’t share your taste in tunes.
What’s worse, I’ve been to sites doing this, but not offering an obvious way to turn it off. Very frustrating and can certainly lead to people leaving your site in droves.
If you really want to incorporate this type of gimmick (yes, that’s what it is) on your site, at least do visitors the courtesy of setting it to “off” with a clear way for them to turn it “on” if they’re interested in it.
Designing a website involves a multitude of things, but the most important component is content. People come to your site to be enriched in some way. Perhaps it’s to learn how to do something, have a good laugh, or simply determine whether you offer what they need. You’ve got to give them a reason to visit your site, and better still, look around at all you offer.
No matter how good your content is, if you don’t make it easy to find things, it’s worthless. When designing a website, keep navigation in mind. Don’t make the visitor hunt around for the information he needs. Put yourself in the shoes of the typical person you expect to visit your site and think about what he will look for, then provide a clear path to it.
Don’t overload the screen with too much information. If you make things too dense, your visitor is liable to throw up his hands and leave. As with print design, white space and illustrations are your friends.
Make sure you’re providing good contrast between your text and any background. Reading on a monitor, laptop or mobile device can be hard enough on the eyes. Don’t compound the problem by doing large amounts of reversed-out text (light copy on a dark background), or worse, laying text over a photo or other patterned background. And speaking of easy to read text, sans serif faces are usually better with digital mediums.
There are different schools of thoughts regarding the length of pages. While pretty much all designers agree your site should never scroll left-to-right (caused by designing it for too wide a width for the browser), some think vertical scrolling should also be avoided while others make pages that go on and on. I prefer a middle of the road approach. With most pages, I try to keep it to one to two “screen pages” in length.
Avoid putting text in graphic format when you can. I’ve occasionally had a client want a large passage of text set in a unique typeface. The only stable way to do this is by creating a graphic of the passage, but search engines can’t “read” what you and I can easily see on screen. That graphic image is just a collection of pixels to the search engine. While you can put some information into the HTML “alt” tag, it’s better to use proper “readable” text. This will also help your Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Speaking of SEO, I don’t normally recommend fancy Flash websites. While doing those can make sense for certain types of entities (musical acts, for instance), they come with a pretty big downside: SEO is much more difficult, if not impossible. I know they can be things of beauty, but that does you no good if prospective visitors never find the site.
If you’re in business, you need a web presence. It’s a way for your business to be available 24 hours a day. Prospective clients can find out what you offer, how to reach you, when you’re open, where you’re located, etc. Even if it’s just a single page, you need to be online.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks to an effective website is that just about everyone out there has a friend or cousin who claims to be a web designer. Just because they’ve got some software that helps them build a site doesn’t mean they know the first thing about good design, reader-friendly writing, and search engine optimization (SEO). If you want a successful website, hire a professional designer. Remember the old adage… you get what you pay for.
Another problem I’ve seen is clients opting for template sites. By that, I mean the various web companies that offer online tools to build your own site. You choose from one of their templates and can do a basic amount of customization. These companies often charge a rather hefty monthly fee and you’re left to do the work. Plus you’ve got a site that may look just like a competitor’s. A much better solutions is to have custom built website that’s just as unique as your business. It doesn’t have to be expensive — I specialize in budget-friendly web design.
Once you have your website up and running, it’s time to tie it to the various social media platforms. For instance, if you market to consumers, Facebook and Twitter are great additions. YouTube provides a great place to store videos that educate clients and prospective clients.
A word about music or other sounds autoplaying on a website… Don’t! This was all the rage a while back and there are still sites doing it. Autoplaying music is less common today, but replacing it has been video and virtual assistants suddenly talking to you. While it can certainly get a visitor’s attention, it may very well irritate him in the process. Maybe he was streaming an online radio station while he surfed the web and you just interrupted his favorite song. Or in the case of autoplaying music, perhaps your visitors don’t share your taste in tunes.