Great web design is all about simplicity. Although it you might think that lots of fancy graphics, sound and moving images will attract visitors often the opposite is true. If you think about it why do visitors come to your website. Mostly they are after information. That's information about products or about a topic or about what others are thinking. Visitors are rarely coming to look at your great web design!
So what is simplicity and how do you achieve it?
Simplicity starts with having a clear idea of what you are trying to achieve. You need to be able to state quickly and clearly the purpose of your website. Is it to sell books, to inform people about a topic, to encourage debate? Whatever the reason for your site you need to be really clear in your mind about it.
Once you can easily explain your website idea, the next thing to do is work out the fewest number of pages you need. Don't forget the aim is simplicity so start with a few pages, build it up to a large number and then hack away until you are left with the bear minimum you need.
Typically you'll have 6 main menu items each of these will have between 6 and 10 sub menu items and each sub menu item will have a number of pages. This means a 3 level site. The top level to show where to go (contact us, topic 1, topic 2 etc). The next level down will expand on the major topic areas and the level below expand further.
A structure like this is simple to understand and is tried and tested on many web sites. However it doesn't need to be religiously adhered to you should do something that works for your web design but with the simplicity principle in mind.
Armed with a menu structure the next stage is to build the site itself. The easiest and often the quickest method is to get a company to undertake the web design for you. However if you choose not to do this then you should think through your pages carefully. The key to simplicity is to think in terms of similarity of pages. You don't want to design six different top level pages. It'll just confuse your visitor and they'll end up leaving. Instead pick a basic layout that works for all the pages and stick to it.
If all is well you'll now have a menu structure and a template (or templates) for each of the level within the menu structure. Now you should think about building a draft site. This is a site that has the look and feel of the final site but without the content. This allows you to review the functionality and layout without being distracted. You should iterate the look and feel until you are happy and then add the content.
If this all sounds a bit complicated and challenging then you are probably better off to get someone to build the site for you. This allow you to concentrate on the content. However sometimes on a budget this isn't possible and in those cases try to follow these web design principles.
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