Web Design - The Importance Of Design Simplicity For Business Websites.

Search engines don't care about web design. People do. While
 search engines will not index a website for its great layout,
 but for the content, people will forget the website that has
 nothing distinctive about it. No visual impact, no interest!
 Now, if you are a serious online entrepreneur and want to
 have a website that sends the right message to the visitors,
 you must know that there are some web design techniques simply
 inappropriate for a business website.

Many web design companies promise websites that respect the
 web standards, are usable and search engine friendly. Yes,
 that's how any website should be. But these are simple tools.
 A professional company will mention them, but it will also
 let you know how a website will increase revenue, reduce
 expenses, bring more customers and so on. A professional web
 design firm will not fashion a website "out of the blue", but
 conceive a design after understanding your corporate values,
 after analyzing the target market and respecting your brand
 image. That's what you should care about when you choose a web
 design company.

There are many elements of web design that screw up a business
 website. Many are simple bad practices, other purely ugly and
 useless. For an unknown reason business websites with really
 bad web design are still fashioned every day.

One of the worst web design techniques is to use Flash instead
 of text. Web designers have fallen in love with Flash, but that
 will do a website no good: it increases the size of the page
 and it is not search engine friendly. Flash is great for music
 bands, movie sites and other sites that need to make a "cool"
 impression. Business websites need to send other messages:
 reliability, customer support, experience and so on. There are
 some astonishing Flash creations on the web, but the most are
 simply annoying, useless and visitors just hate them. Flash is
 exceptionally bad when the designer forgets to put a "Skip
 Intro" button. On a second thought, a "Skip Intro" button will
 suggest that the content on that page is insignificant. So far
 is clear: Flash pages send out mixed messages. However, if you
 are really in love with flash and simply must have it on your
 website, create a non-Flash version.

Small text could also be really annoying. If people can't see
 your message, they'll just go away, eventually to your
 competitors. Another bad web design practice is using too many
 images and animated buttons. There's nothing worse than a
 website that twinkles and gets you dizzy while you try to find
 your way to the information through a bunch of flashy banners,
 buttons and useless pictures. Many web designers still use
 background images.

Seriously, have you ever see a global business website that
 has employed such a web design technique? Most of them have
 a standard, classic design, with simple navigation and plain
 text on a white background. The graphics are in perfect
 harmony with the content, they are not misleading and do have
 proper ALT attributes. There is a reason for simplicity in web
 design: creating websites that are simple, logical and easy to
 use, creating websites that sell.

It takes a real web designer to develop simple web pages that
 are both appealing and simple. Simplicity in web design should
 not by synonym with ugliness. Simple websites could be
 well-designed, elegant and bring other important benefits: they
 load faster, they are easier to scan and easier to navigate,
 they are quicker to design, build, redesign, maintain and they
 require less server space and bandwidth. Best of all: a simple
 web design will cost less and bring more!

Article written by Scott Lindsay.