Please answer [ALL] questions in complete sentences: Questions: #1 Web Design: W

Question

Please answer [ALL] questions in complete sentences:

Questions:

#1 Web Design: What are the “Best Web Design Practices : List 10 DO’s and 10 Don’t’s for a Good Web Design

#2 Navigation Design: What is the “Best Navigation Web Design? List 10 guidelines/ tips for a good Navigation Design

#3 What makes a web design a good web design?

#4Find two (2) other websites that demonstrate Good Web Design and Navigation Practices.

For each website you selected:

Give the url,

Print Screen the index page,

Briefly state 23 good web design and navigation practices that have been incorporated

Explanation / Answer

Answer:

Website is your first digital impression and you want to make sure it’s a great one. It should reflect everything you want potential customers to know and remember about your business. To marketers and other business owners who have been around for a while, this is nothing new. Successful businesses are always trying to improve the quality of their websites to meet the needs of their users. Often times, people are visiting your website because they are seeking out something. You want to ensure that they are finding what they are looking for quickly and with ease. You may have the most amazing business model and offer extraordinary customer service, but with a poorly functioning website, you could miss out on a significant amount of business and ultimately make a bad impression.

Guidelines OF EFFECTIVE WEB DESIGN

1. PURPOSE

Good web design always caters to the needs of the user. Are your web visitors looking for information, entertainment, some type of interaction, or to transact with your business? Each page of your website needs to have a clear purpose, and to fulfill a specific need for your website users in the most effective way possible.

2. COMMUNICATION

People on the web tend to want information quickly, so it is important to communicate clearly, and make your information easy to read and digest. Some effective tactics to include in your web design include: organizing information using headlines and sub headlines, using bullet points instead of long windy sentences, and cutting the waffle.

3. TYPEFACES

In general, Sans Serif fonts such as Arial and Verdana are easier to read online (Sans Serif fonts are contemporary looking fonts without decorative finishes). The ideal font size for reading easily online is 16px and stick to a maximum of 3 typefaces in a maximum of 3 point sizes to keep your design streamlined.

4. COLOURS

A well thought out colour palette can go a long way to enhance the user experience. Complementary colours create balance and harmony. Using contrasting colours for the text and background will make reading easier on the eye. Vibrant colours create emotion and should be used sparingly (e.g. for buttons and call to actions). Last but not least, white space/ negative space is very effective at giving your website a modern and uncluttered look.

5. IMAGES

A picture can speak a thousand words, and choosing the right images for your website can help with brand positioning and connecting with your target audience. If you don’t have high quality professional photos on hand, consider purchasing stock photos to lift the look of your website. Also consider using infographics, videos and graphics as these can be much more effective at communicating than even the most well written piece of text.

6. NAVIGATION

Navigation is about how easy it is for people to take action and move around your website. Some tactics for effective navigation include a logical page hierarchy, using bread crumbs, designing clickable buttons, and following the ‘three click rule’ which means users will be able to find the information they are looking for within three clicks.

7. GRID BASED LAYOUTS

Placing content randomly on your web page can end up with a haphazard appearance that is messy. Grid based layouts arrange content into sections, columns and boxes that line up and feel balanced, which leads to a better looking website design.

8. “F” PATTERN DESIGN

Eye tracking studies have identified that people scan computer screens in an “F” pattern. Most of what people see is in the top and left of the screen and the right side of the screen is rarely seen. Rather than trying to force the viewer’s visual flow, effectively designed websites will work with a reader’s natural behaviour and display information in order of importance (left to right, and top to bottom).

9. LOAD TIME

Everybody hates a website that takes ages to load. Tips to make page load times more effective include optimising image sizes (size and scale), combining code into a central CSS or JavaScript file (this reduces HTTP requests) and minify HTML, CSS, JavaScript (compressed to speed up their load time).

10: MOBILE FRIENDLY

It is now commonplace to access websites from multiple devices with multiple screen sizes, so it is important to consider if your website is mobile friendly. If your website is not mobile friendly, you can either rebuild it in a responsive layout (this means your website will adjust to different screen widths) or you can build a dedicated mobile site (a separate website optimised specifically for mobile users).

Good Website Navigation

1. Distinct

Visually separated and easy to find. Don't make navigation the same color, font, and size as your body text - navigational text should always stand out. For menu buttons use high-contrast colors and very legible text.

2. Simple

Don't puzzle, don't make it too extraordinary. Help your visitors to quickly see what information is available and where to go to find what they're looking for on "autopilot". If they have to think really hard about what to do, you've lost them!

3. Consistent

Use the same navigation model in all your pages. It is very important because without a consistent design, a user may actually think he is in another website. Make sure that you use the same navigation model so that users can easily go about your website without being lost.

4. Familiar

Avoid unusual types of navigation. If you have something that people already know, they deal with it more easily.

5. Clear

Make your menu links do exactly what they say. Use simple, obvious and terms that are easy to figure out. Don't leave people to solve a puzzle, because they won't bother. Keep your text short, descriptive, and to the point.
If it takes more than a second to figure out or needs to click on a link to find out, then this will contribute to a bad user experience for your visitors.

6. Descriptive

Avoid using generic captions to all businesses like "Products" or "Services".
They do nothing to communicate with visitors. Don't shorten distances. Reminds an universal website template.

If navigation defines main products or services, your site will communicate instantly.
Your audience isn't looking for "products" and "services". Let them know in advance what it's all about.
Also search engines prefer descriptive anchor texts, so it will help to rank those pages.

7. Concise

You can add a lot of links in a vertical navigation, that's why some people prefer it.
Too many items in main menu disperse visitor's attention.

Removing less important elements makes remaining more prominent.
Focus user attention on most important links.

8. Interactive

Feedback is essential to any interaction. The moment people click or hover a menu items, make sure to offer an indication of the action. Let the user know where he is at all times. You can do this by changing the link's background, color of the page name or turn the text bold in the navigation menu to make it different from others.

9. Ordered

Put most important items first in the navigation and the least important items in the middle.

People's attention is highest for things that appear at the beginning and at the end.

10. Styled

Minimalism is still in trend in web design, and many web designers simplifies navigation down to almost nothing.
It may be OK, if it doesn't looks dull and comply with the principle #1 Distinct and #8 Interactive.

A visual style that make your menu look cool, adds feeling of phisical detachment and realistic interaction can improve the user experience, but make sure it matches the design of the entire site as a whole.

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