The Keys to a Successful Website Design

I listed down some of the ideas that will help you build a long term success on your website.




1. Explore the goals and the audience of your website.

• The design sells.
  
• Builds community.
• It educates.
• Know its audience.
  

2. Content is king.

• Focus on the content.
• Make the most important on center of the design.
• It should be clear, concise, uncluttered and accessible.

3. Design is cool, but is not a justification.

• Creating visual that is compelling must not interrupt with the page loading speed.
• Draws and enhance attention to the content, not distract from it.
• Interactive menus must be meaningful, encourage exploration, and user interaction.
  

4. Architect the design.

• Plan and use a proper navigation strategy depending on the purpose.
• Content Organization.
• Number of pages necessary.
• Content, focus and scope of the site changes as site gets old.
• Monitor sites organization throughout its life span and plan the adjustment as early as possible.
  

5. Create site mockups.

• Homepage, secondary content areas and sub page design.
• Graphic elements needed.
• Color scheme.

6. Build it.

• Assemble it with the appropriate technology.
• Template should be in valid XHTML/HTML/CSS.

7. Web usability is a web discipline.

• Test drive.
• Different browsers may displays your site differently.
• It takes more than a good design sensibility to create well design sites.
• Browsers are not the only channel to can access the site's contents.
• Some browsers may not support Javascript.