Graphic Style

The best style for your site will depend on your site audience and objective. Design your site with a look and feel that will suite their needs. Do a search on Google.com for businesses similar to yours to find design inspiration.

Research The Big Guys

Note what big companies are doing for the best, and latest in web design. Just because your a smaller business, doesn't mean you have to look like it. See the resources page for a list of inspirational sites.

Keep it Simple

A well designed, simple site, will have: easy navigation, fast downloading graphics and it will be readable by search engines. With millions of messy, cluttered sites out there, it's nice to find a site where you can rest your eyes.

Your Message

Design should enhance your message and not get in the way of it. Visitors should be able to tell what your products and services are, within 5 seconds of looking at your home page. Make your message very clear. You have to hit your visitors over the head for them to get it.

Simple Navigation

Keep the navigation as simple as possible. It may be cool, but if people can't figure out the navigation, they will leave. You should be about to get to any page on your site within 3 or less clicks. Avoid duplicating menus. Avoid using menus that move around. Let the visitor know what they'll get before they click.

If You Must Use Bells and Whistles, Make them Sharp

Bells and whistles, like annoying animations and spinning logos, no longer impress viewers, if they ever did. They clutter up the design of a site and can add greatly to download times. Small doses of animation can be appealing if done well. If your site objective is to wow your audience with stunning visuals, then do so with good design in mind.

Photos

Photo quality can make or break a site. If you don't have high quality photos, arrange to have some taken. Some web designers are also photographers. Quality photography can also be acquired through online stock photo agencies. The prices vary from $40-$150 per image, depending on the photo, the size and the usage.

Tell Your Designer What You Want

The more information you give the designer, the better. Make a list of sites that you like, or don't like, and e-mail it to your designer. What is the style and feeling you wish your site to project? Do you want a clean, minimal, modern site? Or should it be: businesslike, conservative, fun, playful, bight, earthy, animated, and so on. Let your designer know your thoughts in advance so you don't get a disappointing surprise later.

Design for Everyone

A good designer will design a site to look good on a variety of screen sizes. Generally sites need to be designed for smaller sites and slower connection speeds. This means the same site might look too small to you, if you have a larger screen, set to a higher resolution.

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