10 critical web design factors while designing and developing your website

Posted by Naseer Ahmad

December 19, 2009

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Websites are a reliable source of information, a kind of a window through which a company, organization, store or an individual represent their goods and services to the world. Being such an important investment, don’t ignore these 10 critical web design factors while designing and developing your website:

Know your website goals: Each website is designed with a different purpose. Some to earn profits and some for the purpose of information, some for creating brand recognition and some for pure entertainment. For maximum results, always get your website designed revolving around these goals.
Usability of the website: Make information easily available to the user. No matter if the design isn’t revolutionary, but if it’s clear and understandable, you’re going the right way.
Flawless Web Copy: Though always underestimated, the biggest strength of a web copy is its power to induce prospects into action. So make the web copy error free, short, friendly and interesting.
Navigational Structure: If you don’t want your visitors running off to your competitors, keep the navigational structure simple and well presented in your website design for the user to find exactly what they’re looking for.
Loading Time of Website: The minimum the loading time, the better it is. Don’t make the user wait for your website or a certain page of your website load. In this respect, avoid flash and any other elements that slow down the website’s loading time.
Web Page Layout and Elements: Avoid a busy layout with small print and too much text. Include white space, headers, and indentation carefully to make the site appear well for visitors. A balanced site, with just the right amount of organized elements can do the trick.
Cross Browser Compatibility: Make sure your website runs in whatever browser visitors choose to navigate the site. You can ensure this through making the website WC3 compliant.
Search Engine Optimization: Optimize your website and web pages for the search engines. This will increase your chance to achieve higher exposure as well as higher amount of traffic. In order to be known on the web, you must take measures to make yourself visible to the internet users, and utilizing search engines for this purpose is the best method.
Privacy and Terms of Use: This factor is critical to ensure user protection and safety, and must not be ignored by large corporations. If you’re an online shopping entity, adding this aspect to your website will considerably increase your credibility and sales.
Professional Look: Your website should instantly give a professional and credible feeling at first look. Half of the time visitors make a buying decision without concerning about the owner. You can do this by hiring professional web designers or web design services for the job.

To achieve accurate and profitable results from your website’s performance, keep the above given factors in mind the next time you design your website.