Optimal Website Design Guide
A beautiful website design can never compensate slow performance in any website design. One very common occurrence in many websites owned by amateurs is the use of fancy graphic works that need a very long time to load them.
To help you remember the rules for effective website design, here are five basic rules. 1) For peak performance, do not include splash pages: Splash pages are the fancy pages you see when you enter a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like “welcome” or “click here to enter”. The unfortunate thing is splash pages actually takes away attention from the real purpose of the website, and often frustrates users with their slow loading time. This fanciful addition only serves to confuse the visitor who will likely leave your website immediately if loading time takes too long.
2) Be careful using banners: When banners are displayed on a web page, they are usually right at the top but can frequently be seen located elsewhere, including the foot of the page also. Even the newbie to the internet have trained themselves to ignore banner ads so placing them would only waste precious real estate space. The best way to utilize web space would be to use good contents and weave your affiliate links into them so that the users would not feel coerced into buying.
3) Stick with an easy navigational system: Keep navigation simple so that the youngest user can use it. It is good to leave out any fancy flash menus or even multi-tiered drop down menus, they only serve to make navigating the site harder. If you make it difficult for them, they will leave your site. A site map will help them find what they want and should be factored in to the website design right from the start.
4) Let it be clear on the user where he is at the moment: Give them a clear view of where they are now and how to get to where they want to be. This way, they can head to the right information they are looking for. When each link that has been visited is marked in some way form the ones that are fresh, visitors can easily know which is fresh and which is fresh and which is not. If you confuse your visitors in any way they will leave.
5) Do think carefully about the use of audio in the site: Avoid the use of music if you can. While some music can enhance the experience, even the most beautiful of sounds becomes irritating if it is played continuously. Adding audios may seem cool but provide some form of user control such as muting ability or volume control so that your visitors can adjust accordingly. If you wish for the visitors to return to your site, learn to apply all these website design rules and you can reap the benefits of long term traffic.
