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Functionality: logically serving a purpose
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Here are some tips for improving the functionality of your website. - Having a Purpose: Why would anyone want to look at your website? Many people create a website because it's fun to do. It really is!! Some people are pure egotists and enjoy seeing their work up "on the little screen", even if nobody ever looks at it. High traffic websites, however, publish for one of the following reasons:
- to sell a product
- to provide customer service
- to build familiarity in a brand or product, and of course...
- to provide information
It is important to think of who your target audience is? Who would want to look at your website and what would they want to find there? Remember, the Net is about information and convenience. Provide the content and services your visitors want and expect and you've taken the first step towards success.The focus of this lesson is design and style. Remember your purpose when you are designing your site. Is your topic fun and silly, serious and intellectual, creative and artsy? Make your design match with the theme of the topic. Don't put grays and browns on a webpage for an amusement park and don't put clowns and sparkles on a webpage for a mortuary. The following websites seem to have done a good job in judging appropriate themes for their respective audiences:
- Ease of Navigation: Even if someone does look at your website, they will quickly leave if they cannot easily figure out your navigation scheme. The web is such a vast place, a surfer wants ease and convenience. Navigation should be clear and consistent. Primary topic categories and important links should be on every page, in the same location, and in the same sequence. Where you put those internal site links is important. Again, think of your user. For example, I chose to put the links for this class website at the bottom of the page, because my typical user(student) will be reading each page to the end of the page. Many sites use a frame for important internal links that stays on the screen no matter where one clicks. Use of frames has some problems associated with it as you will find out when we study that technique.
Organize your site structure so that every page is never more than 2 clicks away. Using 1 click is optimum, but on larger sites that is difficult to do. Studies show web users become frustrated if they have to click more than twice to get where they want. If your site is very large, consider making a site map or a flow chart of links that is one click away from every subpage. If your site is small to medium, an index "splash page" of links with important categories is sufficient. See this splash page for an example. Although this website is no longer used, you can see that when you roll over one of the subheadings, a 'last updated' notice appears. Not a bad idea. Whether you use a site map or an index splash page, try to make it small enough so the viewer doesn't have to scroll to see all of the links. When I was making our index page for this class I ended up shrinking the spacing and font size of my links to make sure it fit on a 15 inch monitor without scrolling. Label links clearly. Avoid trying to be so clever you confuse your user. When images started to appear on webpages a few years ago, everyone wanted to use an image as a link. As webpages and web designers have matured, more pages are going back to clickable text. Images take longer to load and sometimes confuse the user. If you are going to use an image as a clickable link, make sure you insert an alt attribute(see book) in your image tag. Some users surf with images turned off and won't know you have a hyperlink there. When you feel you have designed an effective, functional site, the best test is to watch users. Ask them to find specific pieces of content in your site and watch how they navigate. Can they get from one to the next with 2 or less clicks? Do they seem to grasp the navigation scheme quickly? Today's surfer is not willing to wait for slow loading pages and confusing navigation schemes. There are too many other sites available on the World Wide Web.
If you are interested in learning more about the aesthetics and functionality of web design, I encourage you to visit these experts:
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