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

Selina Remic — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 00:00:00 CDT

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.

Free Ezine Content And Articles Submission Service

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