Website design ideas

Whilst all website design is subjective as to it's merits or downfalls, there are a range of key factors that ensure the majority of users have a pleasurable and simple experience both navigating and reading your site. This section will aim to bring you all the simple facts on how to ensure that you attract, retain and impress your users with your website design, whatever your content genre.

There is no doubt that there are 'horses for courses' where website design is concerned. You don't go to a site for a design company to find all text, poor navigation and no images - likewise you don't go to the BBC to see a fantastic design with flowing lines and images and minimal text. Striking a balance for your target market will ensure you make the most of their first, and hopefully subsequent, visits.

One of the key factors for the returning visitor is content and regular content additions. There are only a finite number of visitors you can attract online - so in order to keep users returning to you make sure you add content on a regular basis and never have out of date articles or dates for events, gigs, tickets etc. unless they are listed in a specific archive section to show off your previous work or history as a website.

This section will be updated regularly with sites that practice good and bad techniques in website design - not to pinpoint the best, but to help convey the rudimentaries of website design as a practiced art.

You get what you pay for!

This timeless adage really is true when you delve into the world of online design. Internet sites and companies offering templates for £50+VAT with free hosting invariably are selling the exact same site to countless other people willing to pay the money.
 

You also usually get a very poor service from the hosters and can expect a lot of downtime from your site (i.e. no site at your web address - just an error message). So be prepared to invest some time and money although don't shell out thousands if this is your first online venture!