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Keys to a Better Website • Navigation to Site Design

A primary implication of a well-organized website is the fact the end user keeps coming back. A website is created for a purpose unless created for personal use. An example of this would be a portfolio website where you would want the end user to view the amazing work that you have created.
October 2, 2011

For a business website, you would certainly want to provide product information, to make sales, or something similar. Most individuals are visual creatures and would undoubtedly prefer visually stunning designs. It is undeniable this causes no harm but one must put themselves in the shoes of your visitors as to understand how the end user to the site might think, do, and react.

Site Navigation

As I stated previously a website designer has to learn how the end users think. Here are two situations in regards to site navigation.

Situation X – A website with good navigation – two or three hyperlinks to the target page – well planned terms and placement as well as design.

Situation Y – A website with poor navigation – i.e. takes much longer than needed to reach an end user’s destination, hard to read font use, and a poorly placed navigation bar.

In situation X, the end user will know how to access the target page. In the following example, the end user comes across your website and is interested in one of your products. The end user finds the navigation without trouble and enters the end users product page.

In situation Y, the end user stumbles into the website and wants to find out more information about the product. Unfortunately, due to a lack of thought out link placement and hard to read font use, the end user takes much longer and sometimes even fails to find the navigation needed to find the product.

The end result of the website must have good site navigation so the end user can find and hopefully purchase the product.

Site Design

Humans are visual creatures. Color theory, image placement, and just good old design practice, are key factors in the current age of website design. We must put ourselves in the individuals shoes with this in mind.

Situation X – You have created a website with the end user and product in mind. Breathtaking graphics using the aforementioned color theory and image placement. Optimum resolutions and proper font and word sizes.

Situation Y – A website inversely equipped with hideous graphics and pictures in terms of resolution, quality and relevance. Fonts used were not matching, perhaps a bit too fanciful.

In situation X, the end user that enters the website is immediately awestruck with the design and the artwork that’s embedded within it. The images are well placed, optimum resolutions for the images and the fonts are well readable and placed accordingly.

In situation Y, the end user finds the website and sees a shabby environment with badly taken imagery, fonts that are hard to read, and bad color theory with mismatching themes.

The end result of the website must be pleasing to the eye. Have good planning from the beginning. Try to have other people view the site and it contents before finalization and make changes as needed. The key on both accounts – site navigation and design – is to make the site as impressionable as possible



Written By • Jon D

Web Developer / Managing Director
Jon is a website designer in Flagstaff Arizona. He started with web design at the age of 17 where he created a website where he would test and choose the best software from around the internet. It was all hand coded with Homesite – at that time the best (in his humble opinion) HTML editor around. He believes in local economy, open source technology, and helps bring the best the internet has to offer to his clientelle.

Everything ‘By Design’

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
– George Carlin

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