Designing a website, pay attention to the basics

One of the biggest mistakes novice web designers make when designing a new website is often the basics. They tends to go though getting the difficult aspects of web design done but usually fall flat on their face when their design is analysed for the basics web design which even a novice should know.

A case in point is the forum called Rock Forums, though as a forum the design is more complex because the design was integrated into vBulletin software, the script that powers the website, however it fails one of the most basic rules of web design which is to test the final design in all major browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Apple Safari).
Using Internet Explorer to browse The Rock Forum was fine but a visit to the site with Firefox see most of the important elements of the site including the logo fall flat on their faces.  A reference  guide novice web design should bear in mind when designing a website includes:

* Navigation
* Use of hyperlinks (general internal link structure).
* Important contents displayed prominently.
* Forms and contact pages.
* Speed of website
* Optimise graphics to improved SEO ranking, navigation for visually impaired and look and fell.
* Search capabilities
* Basic design concepts
* Site consistencies
* Standardisation and accessibility
* Compatibility with popular browsers.

Whether you are a beginner web designer or experience website designer, you can enhance you site design and development technique by exchanging ideas with other developers are UK Webmaster Forum.

Its is free to join.

Hosting Risk – Collaborative web hosting reviews

In the early days of web hosting when you literally take risk with the hosting company you choose to host your website with, aptly name Host Risk could have been handy to warn you of the potential problem or lack of it that awaits you with each of the hosting companies online then.
After being stung by a hosting company that went bust, I remember comparing the advertisers who were still advertising a year or more later in my favourite Internet magazine .Net to decide who to choose to host my company, the thinking was that, if the company has been advertising for two years or more, then it has stand the test of time and the chances of continuing in business for another two year or so is great.
Host Risk provide a similar function to the one I used to put .Net to, just in a different way.

Hosting Risk basically harnesses the power of social collaboration by providing a platform for web hosting user to nominate and rate their hosting company or a hosting company they have first hand information about.  Once a hosting company is submitted to Host Risk database, other users of that hosting company can register at Host Risk and give account of their experience of the company in question, awarding the site between one and five starts.

Next time you want to host a website it may be worth checking out Host Risk first and read the hosting review users of the company you are thinking of going with are saying about their services.

User Centred Design – Design for SE or users?

User Centred Design

It’s always a good idea to test your website out before you release it to the public, but an even better time to test it is day one of development. User Centered Design is just that, but it doesn’t stop on day one. It’s an ongoing process throughout the development of your site.

Well Worth the Time

Testing your site throughout the development does take more time, and money. Rebuilding a site, and potentially loosing a customer share will most likely cost you more though. If you plan on marketing your site, I would strongly suggest not spending dime one, until you have conducted some test. What’s the point of marketing a poorly designed site that the visitors hate?

By doing things the UCD way, many negative issues that may have occurred later on are already figured out. You may even find strong selling points about your site, that you can now give extra emphasis to bringing your site to the top faster.

Not Everyone Tests

Your advantage to the millions of other websites out there is that most webmasters don’t even bother to test their target audience on how they like their site. Having a site where you know your audience loves will only make your numbers go up, and make your marketing guys your best friends.

This article was written for Temi by Rob Campbell of Best Web Image. Rob is a usability and web design consultant. You can contact Rob via the contact page on Best Web Image. You can discuss this article and other web design related issues at UK Webmaster Forum .