Designing a User Friendly Website

Summary - Here are some points to be kept in mind while designing a website that easy to browse through and serves its ultimate purpose of providing information. Legibility.

Content is the king, this is not to be forgotten ever! Any user coming to your website is there to get some information. If that information is hard to get, user will leave your website and go to Google to find out an alternate source.

Legibility of text is one of the most important things to be kept in mind. Selection of appropriate font-size and keeping adequate contract between text and background are too things that should always be kept in mind while making a website template.

Some researchers even claim that restricting font size by using CSS (where the design specifies a fixed font size value) is another thing that irritates users who like to customize the font size as per their visibility preferences.

Always keeping target user segment in mind while deciding the font-size.

Standardize navigation

Always distinguish hyperlinked text from normal body text. Don't forget to differentiate visited and unvisited links.
Include some of the key information-carrying terms in the anchor text itself to explain what users will find at the other end of the link. This will also aid in search engine optimization (SEO).
Try to avoid opening pages in new windows. A lot of PC owners have their pop-ups blocked, while the ones who don't, feel lost when a new window opens.

Use of Media Elements

Flash and other media elements such as video, MP3 etc. should be used only when there is a need. Flash can be used to emphasize key information or better still to demonstrate some functionality. The latest version of Flash is has amazing features to add functionality to a website.

So, the idea is to use media elements sensible and if-and-when required. Despite such good intentions, most of the Flash that Web users encounter each day is bad Flash with no purpose beyond annoying people. The one bright point is that splash screens and Flash intros are almost extinct. They are so bad that even the most clueless Web designers won't recommend them, even though a few (even more clueless) clients continue to request them.

Browser compatibility

This must be the most annoying task for a web designer. Although a lot of browser incompatibility issues have been taken care in past 2-3 years, but even now we see some minor disagreements between the leading web browsers.

You like it or not, web users choose to browse web on the browser of their choice. So rather than turning them away just because they use a different platform, it is a must to design a website that performs reasonable alike on major web browsers (IE and Firefox for sure)

Form Pages

Try to keep your forms short and to the point. Big forms, featuring too many unnecessary questions and options tend to irritate a user. Try top cut all the questions that are really not needed. For example, do you really to know the first and last names in separate text boxes? Get your website analyzed for FREE to know what additional functionalities can be added to it. If you already know what functionality the web site requires, request a FREE quote now to get a detailed proposal.

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