What Makes a Good Website Design?

Visibility - Compelling Content - Ease of Use - Small Graphics - Technical Skill

Visibility

Great websites are, first and foremost, visible to your intended audience. This means that any user should be able to locate your web site via various means such as search engines, exchanged links, reviews, and more.

What good is accomplished by having a top-rate site available if nobody can find it? Many components are inherent in achieving this goal, including Netiquette-friendly publicity (ie, no spam), proper document construction, and more.

Equally important is the quality of your audience. Nothing is more frustrating than seeing your hits bounce off the ceiling, and realizing that no orders are coming through. 15,000 people a week might sound impressive, but why would you want people who pass through your site quickly and move onto the next one?
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Compelling Content

Great website design includes written text that creates excitement in your audience and encourages them to explore further. Epic novels are not required here - it's been proven that extraneous text on the main page causes viewers to lose interest and move on. Ensure your web site presents all the key points in as brief and as intriguing a way as possible. Subpages are excellent for fleshing out further descriptions.
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Ease of Use

Websites should be easy to use. Contact information should be readily available - hunting around for it is extremely aggravating. You have your customer interested - don't lose the momentum!

Links should work and be readily accessible. Always ensure you can navigate back to the main page in an easy fashion.
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Small Graphics

It's tempting to overload pages with humongous graphics that look simply smashing in print, but are the kiss of death on websites. Consider that the typical user is still on a 14.4 or 28.8 modem - larger graphics means a longer download time which gives your viewer an opportunity to become bored and simply leave.

If you choose to use animations, ask yourself, how will this benefit my site? Is it merely eyecandy, just to show your skill, or does it have a profound effect on the quality of your site?
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Technical Skill

Finally, of course, there is the technical skill of the website designer. Anyone with web page generating software can throw together pages and call himself or herself a website designer. Truly skilled professionals can back their promises with visibility proof and happy customers.
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