3cPlatform

Goals to Reach For When Designing Your Next Website

Goals are important for website design, they help designers focus on the important things and not lose sight of what you want in the end.

A great user-interface is often sacrificed for a wonderful design, but both are equally important and should go hand in hand. A well-designed site helps users travel through your site with ease. Items are where users expect them to be. If they’re in unusual places, they need to make sense and the site design needs to direct users where to go. The navigation is best near the top of the page not because that’s where it looks best, but because users don’t often know to scroll down to find it. If you expect users to scroll to find the navigation, give them a reason to scroll like some movement in the design that directs their eye downward and they’ll find it more easily.

There are many gorgeous sites that just don’t fit the target audience. A retro site with funky colors may look great for a design studio or a music producer, and your client may love the look, but it doesn’t fit a law office with a professional, corporate clientele. Your client can give you good insight on their particular audience, who they target and what customers they reach the most. Do your research and see what other similar companies are doing. You don’t have to do the same thing, but the feel your site gives to its users should be similar.

Good navigation is key for a top notch site. A sitemap done beforehand helps determine where pages should go and what items should be placed together. Many sites often have navigation that is too large because they didn’t plan where information would fit best. You need to minimize the amount of space and maximize the amount of pertinent information. Not everything belongs on a company’s website because not everyone is going to have the patience to read it. Streamline the navigation, determine what’s important and throw away the rest.

Organize the information on your website in a practical manner that follows the most common characteristics of web users. Determine what is important for your audience to know and don’t overwhelm (or underwhelm) them with useless information or try to “wow them” with what may seem cool to you, like a 5 minute flashy intro.

A simple website can be made into a great website with the addition of some simple interactive features that let your audience get information or perform a function easier or faster.