Website Do's & Don'ts
Layout
Layout is defined by the location, size, and color of things like headers, navigation, and content.
The layout of your site is important because it affects the usability of the site. A cluttered, crowded site will have a negative affect on visitors to your site. If they can't find what they are looking for you will have lost a potential customer.
Consistency
Consistency of your site is defined by all pages having the same layout, fonts, and colors.
A website should use the same layout on each page. The fonts and colors should also be consistent. Imagine if the navigation is different from one page to the next. Inconsistency confuses the visitor.
Organization
Organization of your site is defined by grouping like things together and putting the most important things first.
A well organized site is much easier to use and allows the visitor to access the information they are seeking. We've all experienced disorganized websites. When a site is disorganized, people become frustrated trying to find things and leave.
Efficiency
Efficiency of your site is defined by the time it takes for your web pages to load.
This is dependent on factors such as a visitors connection speed, but your site should be optimized for size of pages so that they load as fast as possible. We've all experienced sites that take too long to load. You will lose customers who don't have time to wait for sites to load. Pages should load within 1 or 2 seconds.
Accessiblity
Accessibility of your site is defined by people being able to visit your site using various browsers and devices.
If a visitor can't access your site via a specific type of browser or device you will lose out on them. Your site should display on smart phones and different sized monitors.
Searchability
Searchability of your site is defined by whether your site can be found using various search engines like Google or Yahoo.
If people can't find you by searching for you, your site will be unsuccessful. There are certain practices that must be followed so that search engines can index the sites pages.