Yo Div

With the Internet in pretty much every home, users are now expecting a level of sophistication from web sites they use. Your goal as a designer is to provide users the easiest way of accessing the information you have. You have to adapt web technologies to their expectations and never ‘require’ readers to confirm to certain parameters, such as browser, screen resolution or platform. The days of ‘this can only be viewed in xx on an xx’ are well and truly over.

You need to research the needs and demographics of your target audience. There’s no point in designing a site for an unknown person who you don’t understand.

Navigation
Most user interactions with your website will be through hypertexts and links between pages. It is crucial that your primary navigation is clear, un-cluttered and has a sense of order or organisation.

Users in European countries for example read left to right, top to bottom - so the most common and acceptable places for primary navigation is at the top horizontally, or on the left vertically. It is not normally advised to place primary navigation on the right hand side.

Clear, consistent icons give the user confidence that they can find what they need without getting lost and wasting time. A home button/link to the home page and major navigation points should be included on every page.

Accessing Information
Your users want to get access to the information in a few steps as possible. This means that your hierarchy of information much be efficient to minimize steps the user has to go through. Studies have shown that users prefer to access information within 3 to 5 links. You should design your site hierarchy so that your content is only a click or two away from the main menu pages.

Bandwidth Considerations
If your site takes too long to appear, users will become disinterested and leave. Studies have shown that the typical threshold is approximately ten (10) seconds. If your webpages are not designed and tuned to network speed users will simply go elsewhere.

Many home computers now have access to broadband speeds and DSL (digital subscriber line) to access the web, however, it will be around another 3 years before users can guarantee on most home users have access to high-speed connections. In general, be conservative with your graphics. Users that are on high-speed connections will appreciate your fast loading site significantly more.

Simplicity and Consistency
Unless you are designing your own portfolio web page, users will not be impressed by over complex graphics that detract from the information on the site. Your interface should be simple, familiar and logical. Anything that is unusually creative will most likely confuse users since impose and unfamiliar and unpredictable interface burden in the user.

The user interface of your website should follow consistent navigation and layout conventions of other major websites since users now know to navigate these conventions. Look at major sites such as google.com, amazon.com, apple.com and microsoft.com to see examples of consistent design/navigation.

For maximum functionality and legibility, your page and design should be built in modular blocks including:

• Primary Navigation
• Secondary Navigation
• Primary Content
• Secondary Content
• Tertiary Content

Your users should feel comfortable in using your site and confident that they can find what they need easily.

Design Stability
To give your users confidence that what you have to offer is accurate and reliable, your design needs to instill confidence and should be given the same amount of care and attention as you would in other types of corporate communication using the same level of editorial and design standards.

Stability in the website means that you should keep the interactive elements of the site working reliably. Good websites are inherently interactive with lots of links and local pages within the sites and a wealth of links to to other sites on the web. As you create your design, check that all of you links work and that other websites complement your site. Information changes on the web daily. After your site is established, check the links are still working and it is advisable, once a month to check your site for broken/dead links and update anything which has changed so that content remains relevant and accurate.