Design

Colours, style, alignments, visual elements - these are all areas that make up a website design.

A good design highlights the important areas of a website, making it easy for visitors to find what they want quickly and without hassle. It emphasises functionality making it completely obvious how to achieve a visitors likely goals e.g making an enquiry or purchasing a product.

Content

One of the most important areas of a website - visitors go to web sites primarily for information of some sort (which may then lead to a sale in an ecommers application) - every page should have a goal and be specifically aimed with the target audience in mind, both with regards the terminology and the way in which it is presented.

The format of the content should also be carefully considered, images and videos are a great way of presenting information but plain text is much better when it comes to search engines (e.g Google can't 'read' images but it can process text)

Navigation

Links, menus, buttons - all are part of a website's navigation and the way in which people move between pages within a web site.

When arriving at a new website, visitors have a limited amount of patience in finding the information they require - if it becomes too difficult or time consuming, they will simply leave and go elsewhere.

Clear and intuitive navigation allows customers to find what they want quickly without any undue frustration, helping to maximise the chances that they will make an enquiry or purchase.

what makes a good website?

• layout
• colour
• image
• design
• navigation
• content