In a world that’s becoming increasingly connected through the Web, it’s important that you are able to engage with your audience, otherwise you risk just being another faceless web designer among a sea of websites.
I had to go through hundreds of sites and It seems most designers run out of steam by the time they got around to developing their about pages. The “Corporate profile”-page is one of the most overlooked pages in development and one of the highest ranked pages on many websites.
Unique “corporate profile”-Pages
A great way to distinguish your website from the crowd is to have a truly unique corporate profile page. It acts like your online business card.
Big Photograph
A large photograph can leave a lasting impression in your users minds if it’s done well.
Well Organized
The best site pages I found were the ones that had a lot of information but were excellently organized, making them easily digestible. When faced with the task of creating contents for pages, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and put it off indefinitely because the subject you are dealing with is yourself.
Minimalist
A minimalist approach can be a great way to convey important information about your services without distracting the user.
Drop-Down
A few of the pages I found were actually accessible not from a traditional page but an ajax driven drop-down modal. It’s a great way to make the information about your services easily accessible to anyone from any page without forcing users to navigate away from the page their currently reading.
Business Card Websites (BCW)
BCW’s are a great place to send people if they want to get an overview of your social networking presence, portfolio and capabilities, contact information, etc.
KISS (Keep it Short and Simple)
Overall, keep the overall layout and concept short and simple. Utilize hyperlinks and calling pages.
Useful Tips for Effective Web Design
Fast Loading web site designs
This is the number 1 tip that every web designer should follow. You might design a web site that looks fantastic but few people are going to see it if it takes a long time to load. Your designs should be optimized for the web and should not take more than 15 seconds to load.
Clear Navigation
Once a visitor has come to your site you need to make them go through your site. To do this you need to have clear navigation. Make sure all your important links are at prominent places. Preferably right on top - that's usually where a visitor first looks. Make use of menus on the right and the left. Try to link to as many pages of your site. Let your information be accessible from all parts of the site.
All Resolutions
Today, there are computers with all kinds of resolution. They range from 640 x 480 to 1024 x 768 and go even higher. The best way to do this is to design your site in terms of percentage and not pixels.
Browser Compatibility
Make sure your site is browser compatible. Don't stop designing your site as soon as you find that it looks great on IE. Usually other browsers like Google Crome, Safari might gives some problems, especially when you try doing complicated HTML designs.
Readable and professional looking fonts
Don't ask me how many times I've clicked out of a site just because the font is in Comic Sans and the color is a bright pink or green. Just by looking at the font you feel that the site is not a professional site. Don't use Comic Sans and other fancy fonts that may not be available on most computers. If the font you use is not available in a visitors computer the web site will use the default font of your computer which will displayed as boxes or ASCII Codes.
Minimize the use of images
I believe that sometimes simple designs are the most effective for the web. Keep your site simple but neat. Don't clutter your page with big, bulky images that take ages to load. Instead use tables creatively and design eye - catching icons that will draw a visitor's attention to a particular section of your site. Tip - Visitors are usually more interested in content than in design.
Use of white space
Try not to clutter up your page with too many images, backgrounds and colorful fonts. Again use the Keep It Simple principle by minimizing the use of graphics and using a lot of white space. White space gives a sense of spaciousness and overall neatness to a site.
Check for broken links
Always check for broken links within a site before uploading it to your web server. Check it using online tools like Net Mechanic
Hopefully this will inspire you to revisit your website and come up with some unique and innovative ways of positioning your website on the web.
Article Contributed by Amit Kumar , Senior Consultant of Training Edge International
Email : amit@trainingedgeasia.com
Website : www.trainingedgeasia.com
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