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Creating
Great Web Sites (1 of 2) Part
1 | Part 2
Contributor: Mike de Sousa, Director, AbleStable®
There
are a number of essential elements that make up
every quality web site. This extended article sets
out the main features that go to produce an unmissable
Internet destination, and is of equal use to seasoned
web professionals as to those creative people developing
a web site for the first time.
Purpose
There
are many different kinds of websites. Some sites
act as on-line brochures to advertise services and/or
products (this category includes the creative professional's
site offering a portfolio with examples of their
work). Larger e-commerce sites enable the on-line
payment for products and services (often driven
by a database server and generally with little informational
content). Add to these, web sites that range from
offering search facilities, Internet gaming and
broadcasting, and informational sites such as AbleStable®,
and it becomes clear that constructing an effective
web site is defined by its' purpose.
The more complex a web site, the more challenging
the task is of maintaining quality, consistency,
and ease of use, three overriding aims in creating
a premium web site experience.
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Ten
principles that deliver great web sites
After
thinking long and hard we've come up with ten general
principles that encapsulate all great web sites.
Great websites:
• maintain an
on-line presence with at least a 99.5% uptime record
• are focussed
about their purpose
• spend time and
effort developing solutions that ensure general
accessibility
• respond within
24 hours in person (non-automated) to email support
requests
• are easily navigable
with consistent navigational aids
• provide easily
read, high quality text
• are well maintained
(web page code and links)
• include contact
and biographical information that is accurate and
easily found
• offer an accessible
feedback mechanism
• are visually
attractive
In addition to these points, larger sites wishing
users to return on a regular basis must provide
a continually growing resource of original, high
quality content. You'll note from the general principles
we've provided above, web sites can accomplish a
great web presence without spending sack loads of
cash. It's about ensuring care and attention is
given to the quality and detail of a site that sets
a fabulous web location apart. We'll now turn our
attention to the essential elements that make up
web sites.
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Navigation
Effective navigation is a web designer's greatest
challenge and inevitably results in compromise solutions.
Many web designers favour style over function and
usability. When developing a web site it is always
advisable to keep the target audience and their
on-line habits in mind. It may be tempting to choose
drop-down menus, Flash intros, and database driven
elements, but beware the pitfalls.
Let's take the drop-down menu as an example that
warrants careful consideration. Time and again usability
studies have shown people make judgements about
web sites as the page opens. Before the buttons
have been cached and the text rushes to the bottom
of the page, users have made up their mind about
whether a web site is worthy of their valuable on-line
time. They won't get to the drop-down menu to see
what's on offer, and they'll be long since gone
before your impressive Flash animation is complete.
A book is very much judged by the state of its'
cover. Ask yourself why Google, Amazon, The BBC,
and other great sites avoid drop-downs and you'll
soon realise the importance the big players place
on the 'immediate message'.
It's important to remember delivering an effective
web site navigational system is as much to do with
effective window naming, page content, and site
structure, as the links and buttons that appear
as menu systems. The most important principles in
ensuring effective web site navigation is to view
web sites as a whole and provide as much assistance
to the user to know where they are, where they've
been, and how to get to where they want to go.
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Dynamic
Sites
Web sites are increasingly delivered
with the aid of database servers. Sites where the
URL ends in .asp, .php, or .cfm etc are often called
'dynamic' as web pages are delivered according to
the specific requests users make of them. These
requests may differ from user to user dependant
on the user's purpose. Although many so-called 'dynamic'
sites have database functionality and appear to
benefit the user by individualising their web experience,
the creation of new content by real people in database
sites is often very thin on the ground.
Premium web sites view the constant development
and delivery of new resources and high quality content
together with user interaction (how much users participate
and contribute towards the site) as what truly defines
a dynamic site rather than the technologies that
deliver it.
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Part
1 | Part 2
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