In a recent client meeting, I presented recommendations for a new website design and navigation approach to a group of technicians who were being asked to proofread the new site for technical accuracy. I began the meeting by presenting these fifteen best practice tips to give them a quick education on our thought process. It didn't totally eliminate their design suggestions (as I had hoped), but it did give me a reference point to discuss why we chose to do, or not do, certain things.
1. Know who is visiting your site, and why they came. Most sites have multiple audiences. Make sure your site speaks to all potential users.
2. Using separate landing pages to make each audiences feel that the site is specifically designed and suited for their individual needs.
3. Make it easy to find what they are looking for by using intuitive logic.
4. Use language that your audience understands and identifies with.
5. Get to the point. People can get very impatient on the web.
6. Avoid heavy graphic elements that take time to download.
7. Simplify your homepage to reduce elements and make it easy for site visitors to know what you offer to whom.
8. Make your Search function easy to find and use.
9. Shorter copy, bold graphics and more white space make a page more inviting to read.
10. People read the sections they want to read, not the entire site. Don't hesitate to duplicate copy in the most logical place that audience might look for it.
11. Make it readable for all ages. Avoid odd type fonts and too small type.
12. Avoid scrolling whenever possible. Adding a page is better than run-on copy.
13. Optimize the site with title tags, keywords, and other programming content to improve PageRank.
14. Provide links to important sites to improve PageRank.
15. Keep it fresh, I may come back tomorrow.
