Knowledge Base:   KB Home | File Access Control on XP Home | Basic Network Testing | Date Formatting | Web Design Tips

Best Practices for Website Design

As business consultants, we're often asked for our best advice on website design. We've outlined a few items that are common to all businesses, regardless of size or industry.

Website Fonts:

1. Normally we use a style sheet (CSS) and run a special font for best appearance, then a backup font and finally a basic cover-all font. That way if you reach a user whose PC doesn't have the "Special Font" installed then they see the backup font, and if they don't have the backup font...etc.
2. Your better off sticking with a simple, well-known font that is distributed with every OS sold on the market (Windows, Mac, Linux).
3. The most common fonts are: Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, sans-serif, Courier New, Courier, Monospace, Tahoma, etc.

Website Design:

1. Use a web safe color pallet.
2. Use a table-based code structure.
3. Don't use "Flash" for navigation (or any other plug-in for nav). If the user doesn't have the "plug-in" then they can not use your site - a lost business opportunity.
4. Keep the graphics compressed and don't make the base page (template) size over 75K or the site will be too cumbersome and slow by the time you finish adding content, pictures, logo's, sponsors, ads...etc.
5. Assemble content before you plan the navigation scheme, and use a flexible, include-type of navigation (plan on it changing often).
6. Designers: Don't get too attached to any one design. Management has their own idea of what they want, which they can't always articulate. But you can count on the fact that they will want to change your design.

Best Advice:

1. Remember to focus on who your audience is and their typical capabilites. Don't over estimate!
2. Use a common logo and color scheme. Branding your company across all print, web, customer forms and building signs will elevate customer recognition.
3. Keep it simple. Don't attempt to document every service or product your company provides on your home page. Leave some content for other areas of your web site. If you sell it, put it in your catalog and make the search effective.
4. Open your navigation to 95% of your site with one or two clicks. If a customer has to click 7 times to find a product, they may not be able to find it next month.
5. Make your navigation obvious. Don't chose colors or stlyes that mimic other text. It is very frustrating when sites have multiple types of hyperlinks on a single site, or your visited hyperlinks disappear into the regular text.
6. Organize and mark content. Don't hide needed information under obscure titles. If you have "restricted" content, mark it clearly with different color navigation so everybody knows it is different.

Back to Knowledge Base Articles