The first step here is not to dictate to you what the design of your website should be like and we are presuming that you already have an idea about your website as well as the branding and feel of the website is already sorted out. If you want to develop a design by yourself or have given it t someone else then the below five points will help you heaps.
Tip number 1: Visualize it to be seen on tablet and mobile phones
In today’s market one must keep in mind that most people are using tablets and smart phones to view websites. Keep in mind that the design that you make should be user friendly not only for laptops but also for hand held devices including tablets and smart phones like iPhone and Android phones. There are two approaches to it one being responsive design and another is when you have designed your website make an image of it and view it on tablets or smart phones to see how it looks like. Main points to observe are that the text is readable and the design is not cramped too much so it becomes annoying for the user. The navigation has to be easy to use and easy to tap as most tablets and smart phones in the market use tapping.
At this stage you can review your design and make list of critical points that you observe. As you have not started building or programming your website, it is not too late to go back to the drawing board and start the design from scratch. Keep in mind what you are aiming for in your website from business point of view as well. Keeping in touch with technology you need to keep things in mind as to what technologies are compatible with most of the tablets and smart phones. Keep in mind not to use those components which will not load on your hand held devices like flash or other applets. Our recommendation would be not to use flash unless it really is necessary for your business image.
The best time to note down the compatibility issues is at the starting of the project in the planning phase. Make use of a requirement document as well as a wireframe for all devices so you do not get tangled in these issues at the middle of the project. By keeping these points in mind and practicing them it will at the end save you a lot of time, effort and money.
Tip Number 2: Start from a search engine’s point of view
Search Engine Optimisation is evolving with time and you need to keep basics in mind from the start. Some basic steps to cover for search engine optimisation are working on your page titles i.e. keeping it small and precise giving away information about your website, Meta keywords and Meta description, most important of all is the content you display on your website. The content should be original, non duplicated and natural occurring. One thing that beginners fail to grasp is that the layout is very important as well when it comes to being user friendly. One good practice is that go through the rules that search engine’s follow to rank a website high and then plan or look at your website from a search engine’s point of view. You will be able to grab design issues before heading to the programming stage. Try using non scripted navigation on your design, images to be lighter, with caption and text so that the search engines can read through the images. The content should be clearly identified with headings and keywords in the content paragraph. It is good to have information about the page somewhere in the content of the page, meaning that a text that explains what the page is about which makes it easier for the search engine to index the page.
Tip Number 3: Keep the loading speed fast
If you website take more than 7 seconds to load then you will lose 80% of your viewers. When you are designing a website then you need to write down the items that will take time to load the page. The items that take time are images, videos, heavy graphics, background image, flash, animation, promotional panels etc… The magic number that you are looking for is 5 items in a page. If you get to 5 before the end of the design of the page then you need to stop and look back. Page speed is very important in view of search engines as well as the user experience. If you page takes long to load the search engines will move it below the rank. Make sure your page loads quickly and completely as that can affect your rank.
Hope these few tips would help you design a better and high quality website. If you want a professional to have a look at your business or website feel free to search for Techwrath.
