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Elements in Website Design and Development

CHAPTER ONE: USE, USER, USABILITY

While there are numerous factors and complex processes involved, the whole enterprise of Website Design and Development primarily operates upon three core considerations: the Use, the User, and Usability. Use pertains to content or material, and the purpose of constructing the website; User to the target traffic or target visitors; Usability to functionality, and the effectiveness of the website design to meet user goals and expectations.

The USE
Identify the purpose or the objective for building the website. Gather the consensus of the management and determine if the agenda of the website is to inform, endorse, sell or entertain. Other factors such as the website’s theme, target market, content etc. will then be built upon the main agenda.

Ensure that website content is relevant and engaging. Content is the most critical element in Website Design and Development as majority of internet users go online with a definite goal or purpose. Most users simply do not have time and the patience to read long, boring narratives and nonspecific material. With the advent of search engines, it is also very easy for users to skip to the next listing if their expectations are not met by the website.

While aesthetics is important in keeping a website attractive, it should not overpower content. Similarly, heavy graphics and animation could affect download speed, confuse visitors, and ultimately defeat their purpose. Graphic design should merely enhance navigation and functionality of the website.

The USER
Create Personas. Besides conducting research on the psyche and behavior of consumers and target visitors, web designers now also use “personas” to make web design planning more efficient and focused. Personas are “fictional persons” created by the web design team based on their findings in their target market research. As a concrete representation of the target market, a persona is assigned with a name, age, photo, personal profile, computer proficiency, and user expectations. Web design teams usually only consider five or less personas in web design and development.

Keep users involved in website development. It is crucial to obtain continual feedback from users to maintain the effectiveness of the website. Include email feedback, customer support, message boards, user groups, etc. in the website to gather up-to-date responses and direct suggestions from users. The earlier an error is corrected and an expectation met, the more successful a website will be. Web design teams also utilize “use cases” which sum up user expectations and preferences based on gathered responses from users, focused groups, and usability tests.

Keep website format and navigation simple. Generally, familiar formats work best when it comes to user interaction and recall of a website. Research has shown that users typically use consistency, content relevance, efficiency, intuitiveness, straightforwardness and ease of use, as bases in judging the effectiveness of a website.

USABILITY
Consider user interface in website planning and design. Factors that go with this include types of user platforms, level of user computer proficiency, general user connection speeds and computer configurations. In connection with this, it is also beneficial to set goals on website performance success rates and a target time duration that the user will have found an answer to a query, or a task completed.

Become visible in search engine listings. Studies have shown that the top 30 indexed websites in search engines generate the most traffic. Aim to get on top of search engine listings. By incorporating search engine optimization into the website design, and keeping an updated registration with the major search engines, website relevance and visibility are ensured.

Use Parallel Design instead of Brainstorming. In parallel design, members of a web design team would initially propose their own individual designs to be pitched to the rest of the team for analysis and evaluation. This eclectic approach is said to be more effective than brainstorming because the resulting “ideal design” is based on a consensus reached through the concrete and saturated ideas of the entire design team.