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 Web Design ~ Introduction 
If you are looking for the holistic philosophical approach to web design, then I'm not your designer.

If your web pages need the evangelistic holy-roller World Tour Experience to target specific constituency, then I'm not your designer.

If your web pages require the latest in graphics, flash, sight and sound that require gaga-gigabits of bandwidth to download, then I'm not your designer.

Turn your web project over to a usability expert, he will turn your perfectly good copy into a design that will leave the view wondering, "What exactly is it, you do?"

Turn your web project over to a large web design firm where they have fast, powerful computers, modern browsers, IT staff to keep everything running, their choice of software, and local disk storage -- or at worst, a fast network and they will design you a site that requires powerful computers, modern browsers, an IT staff to keep it running and a fast network connection download the pages.

If your web pages require a blend of arts, architecture, and content in an inclusive design where your product is the star, then I'm your designer. We do not want your viewers to have to think about the design, the navigation or the purpose of your site. Effective site design means that your product is the star. Every click on your site is an investment. If you site is easy to use and provides value then the viewer will not want to leave your web site. He will want your products.
 Thou shalt: 
  • Optimize search
  • Use trigger words with anything that is linkable (for example, use mortgage and don't bury it under loans on the home page)
  • Be predictable
  • Provide appropriately detailed info
  • Have a call to action on each page (buy, order, make a reservation)
  • Use readily understood conventions (for example, underline for hyperlink, no underline for normal text)
  • Let users contact you via multiple mediums (telephone, fax, email and the good old US Post Office.)
  • Earn the right to ask for information
  • Give users starting points
  • Integrate e-mail (if transaction is completed, send a receipt and thank-you to confirm that the order has been shipped)
  • An effective web page minimizes the graphical experience and gives the viewer the greatest number of ideas in the shortest time with the least text the smallest amount of scrolling.
  • Users should be able develop a quick mental image of your navigation structure and it should not change. No hidden menu, popup, pullouts or pull downs. They are using your site for the first time and it not their favorite computer program where they know every menu option and secrete hidden functions. If you have more than 8 choices on your home page, rethink your design.
  • Follow Web standards in coding the site (start with standards by W3C, then use anything else that has become an acceptable standard, such as JavaScript)
  • Follow convention--if 80 percent to 90 percent of users do something, it is a convention
  • Emphasize fast response time (both in page weight and in server capacity)
  • Write for the Web: concise, objective, and easy to scan
  • Help users decide where not to go: differentiate product lists
  • Support search, but don't make it too fancy (Google sets the standard)
  • Conduct task analysis before doing any design
  • Emphasize task support while designing (for example, comparison shopping)
  • Run user tests several times during the design process
  • Make sites accessible to people with disabilities
 Thou shalt not: 
  • Use cute labels
  • Give too many choices up front
  • Shorten labels for aesthetics
  • Get in the way of the user: no splash pages, no Flash intros, don't pollute content with market-ese and gratuitous graphics (for example, photos of smiling people and things that go twirl and move for the sake of movement)
  • Include uninvited pop-up windows, except for help
  • Break the Back button (opening new browser windows is a common fallacy)
  • Make functional design elements look like advertising (they will be ignored)
  • Use moving text
  • Allow linkrot (links to web site that do not exist) to happen
  • Hide shipping costs or other "gotchas"--these will cause abandoned shopping carts
  • Use focus groups or surveys to guide interaction design
  • Redesign obsessively: Get it right before you launch and keep the same design for at least a year
 To contact us for a quote or schedule a consultation: 
Please click on the "Contact Us" link below.

Copyright © 2003- Karl Snyder, All rights reserved.