Is Your Website As Good Lookin’ As You Are?

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This month we’re breathing in…exhaling, and asking, what makes a good website?

In the last post we took a look at the PLAN concept, beginning our journey with the purpose of your website.  Hint if you haven’t read that…its the best place to begin.

Today, we’re stepping into phase two.  Website design, or the look of your site…yes this is where it gets fun for those creative types, and probably causes a migraine for those less inclined.

Website Design – DIY or Designer?

So, do you take the DIY route or hand it over to someone else? That my lovely is a choice only you can make. No doubt, ability, interest, time, & cost will all come to bear on the final decision.

But no matter whether you decide the drive the limo yourself, or hire yourself a nice chauffeur, you’re still going to want to follow certain guidelines to make your website design attractive and user friendly.

Today though it’s all about the look.  Navigation will get its own special treatment in an upcoming post.

So how do you want your site to look. Yes you. I won’t rehash old ground here, go and check out why you should go nuts and break a few rules for more on that subject.

Your site should reflect who you are, your business, your brand. It should do this with clarity, therefore the look is your first port of call.

Theme Options

Stock standard, most wordpress themes are going to afford you a header, sidebars(s), content block and footer. Now what you allocate to those areas and where you have them appear will depend on the flexibility of the theme you choose.

Premium (paid) themes like Headway will give you more flexibility than a lot of the free themes out there, or if you’re going the whole hog with a custom job through a website designer who knows their shit…well then there’s a bucketload of scope.

The most important thing to remember is always bring the look of the page back to purpose.  What do you want the audience to do.  Design your website to fit those needs.

Here’s a few tips to keep you on the straight and narrow as you put on your designer hat:

• Have primary objective visible on the screen for each page you create (in other words you shouldn’t have to scroll down to see them)
• Don’t get carried away with all the latest and greatest widgets and share buttons, it overcrowds and too much choice leads to inaction.
• Make sure to give a good amount of white space for easy readability.
• Watch background colors in content blocks…keep them subtle if at all…white or off white is usually best for most readers eyes.
• Use colors that fit the feel of your business or brand, generally 3 colors max will give you the best effect…you don’t want it looking like a kaleidoscope…unless your selling kaleidoscopes that is.
• Keep a similar look and feel to each of the pages on the site, don’t get all radical with new pages being significantly different. consistency is important to your brand.
• Font sizes and color needs to be uniform across your site, as per the previous point.
• Don’t overload the sidebar(s) with advertising, it ends up making your page look a complete dogs breakfast.
• Don’t follow trends, you’ll end up with a site that might look dated very quickly.
• Make a list of your 5 favorite websites, and write down what it is about them you like, how can that translate to your design. This isn’t about copying though.
• Mud-map your site on paper or have a spare domain, where you can play around to refine the look and feel and test functionality

Remember your site is not set in concrete it will naturally evolve as it ages and you will want to redesign as your audience grows and you find your groove.

In reality, people will look past poor website design once they are hooked on your content…but you have to get them there first. A good looking website is a big chunk of that equation.

Next week we’ll move on to stage three of the PLAN…Audience. Join me same bat time, same bat station for that one.

Have questions or comments on this post, then have your say below.
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