When it comes to your website design, never compromise efficiency for a beautiful design. The existence of large, slow loading flash files on some website shows that some webmaster do not require the basic understanding if what constitutes an optimally designed website.
Here are five important website design rules of thumb to observe which should ensure your website performs well. 1) Splash pages are not a good idea
1) Splash pages are not a bright idea; Splash pages are the first pages you see when you arrive at a website. These pages use elaborate designs created with the purpose to entertain the visitor with fancy animations, brilliant photos and include welcoming words such as hello, welcome or click here to enter our website. They are merely fancy additions without any real functions at all. Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.
2) Overuse of banner advertisements is a big mistake; The most common place for these large advertising banners to be placed is close to the page header but the bottom of the page is also quite popular too. Banner ad tends to be ignored by most web surfers so it is a total majority of the web surfers so they would a total waste of your website space. There is a better way to add contents instead of using banner is by giving them useful information and then add their affiliate links so that they would seem natural.
3) Make the navigation as simple as possible; Keep navigation simple so that the youngest user can use it. Leave out any form of complicated menu that is flash based or the use of multi-tiered menu: they only add to complicate the layout. Remember, if users find it hard to navigate, they will leave very soon after landing on your home page. Your website design should include the construction a sitemap that will make it easy for them to find what they want.
4) There needs to be a clear indicator where the user is on the website; You will need to have a sitemap to facilitate the user to be in control. That way, they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site easily. Make sure that every page has its own title and that some form of breadcrumb trail is used to track the visitors step throughout the entire website. Any type of confusion drives your visitors away.
5) Do consider the need to include audio in you website; If your visitor is going to stay a long time at your site, reading your content, you will want to make sure they’re not annoyed by some audio looping on and on at your website. While some music can enhance the experience, even the most beautiful of sounds becomes irritating if it is played continuously. Using audios may not always be a good idea, if you have to include them be sure to allow for some form of user control such as volume or muting ability. If you use all these tricks of website design effectively, you will in time that your visitors will likely return again and again to your site.
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