Web design 101: Introduction to web design
Web design 101, is a series of posts in which I publish articles related to web design.
I will develop this series with the goal of leading the readers to the stage where they will be able to design and create their own web sites.
In this first article I introduce 5 core elements used to develop any website.
The five key elements for a good web site are: site architecture, technology, content, visual design, interaction.
When developing a web site you should take this 5 elements in consideration to ensure that your online presence has the correct foundations.
Site Architecture
Many years back when i use to go to my local video rental shop, i had to fill in a card with the reference code of the video i wanted, and hand it out to the shop assistant so that he could find the correct video and bring it to me.
Well this is information architecture as he had to organize the videos accordingly to that code.
This theory is the same as when developing a web site architecture, because we need to label, categorize and organize the content in order to define what information we want to pass to a website user.
For example Microsoft website is so complex in terms of the amount of information available, that without a good web site architecture would be impossible to control such amount.
Just as my local video shop had to organize the videos, we as web designers, web developers or website owners have to organize our content not just by category but also by its relevance.
Technology
Firstly, when developing or designing web sites one of its core elements is to define what technologies will be used throughout the project.
The number of technologies is expanding at a fast rate and became overwhelming, so to choose the correct one is crucial and might not be as easy as most people think.
Below is a list of some technologies used on the internet.
- Browsers
- HTML/XHTML
- Cascading Style Sheet
- Javascript
- Adobe Flash
- Adobe Flex
- Multimedia: Video, Audio
- Server Side Technologies
- XML and Web Services
- AJAX
- Content Management Systems
It is a long list and if you top it up with the sub-categories of each technology mention above, the list would easily expand to its triple.
As you can see the choice of which technology, that you will be using in your projects is crucial to any website success.
Secondly, you have to come to a solution of how the chosen technologies interact to each other.
Content
Has so many people said before “Content is king”.
Content is the first reason why visitors come to a website, either they want to learn something or check a review for product you sell, the list is endless.
Just keep in mind that informative and relevant content will bring you more visitors and increase the reputation of your website. Ways to get content is a whole new article.
Visual Design
Visual design is the aesthetics of a website and involves some communication characteristics: Layout, Typography, Color, Graphics, Images.
Visual design should provide good visual identity and visual consistency throughout the entire website.
Keeping that in mind visual design meets the requirements of good website usability, because what is the point of having a really pleasing website which is not usable, by making it over complicated for users to reach the content provided or not being able to find a clear and defined call to action.
Keep your website aesthetics pleasing but do not forget what is the final goal and make it clear to the users what you want from them.
Interaction
Interaction is everything that is expected from a user to do in a website, either is filling out a form or purchase some item, etc…
The question here is: “How we lead users to become active instead of being passive observers ?”.
My answers is, design a clear and easy to use user interface, so that the users don’t have to to move back and forward to achieve their aim on a website.
Sometimes websites have so much information not well organized that users have difficulty in reaching the expected action.
Conclusion
This was the first web design 101 article and i included a brief introduction to what i think being 5 core elements of good web design .
5 foundations for a website
Hope this article is helpful and please feel free to post a comment and share your opinion.