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With the qualities of a successful site in mind, you may already have a good idea about what you're going to put on yours.
But the most difficult decisions may be how to decide what to leave out. If you put everything you desire on your website, you'll end up with a bloated mess.
Building and maintaining a website requires a kind of discipline not required by other forms of publishing.
The ease with which you can add something to your website can lead to an "anything goes" mentality. But just because you can doesn't mean you should.
Printed publications such as newsletters, catalogs, and brochures are constrained by the cost and physical limitations of paper and ink, as well as postage and other distribution expenses.
Broadcasters have time limits, transmitter range, and federal standards within which to work. Web publishing has few constraints. Websites can expand indefinitely, and many do. Web pages hang around long after their creators have forgotten their original purpose.
To help you determine if something is worth including on your site, let's look at some of the components of a website and how they contribute to (or detract from) how your site provides context, enables tasks, and maintains hierarchy.
Logo
Put your company logo on your website. I know, it's a no-brainer, but there's a right way and many wrong ways. Here are some guidelines: Match the color and composition of your website logo with how it looks in other contexts your signs, letterhead, advertisements, pens to reassure visitors that they've arrived at the website they were expecting.
Don't make it spin, or flash, or slide into view. A slow connection to your site can stall before your special effects load, so optimize your logo graphic so it loads quickly. Keep the logo relatively small and discreetly placed near the upper-left corner of your web pages.
Your logo also can double as a shortcut link back to your home page, so the upper-left placement reinforces the mental map in your visitors' minds that clicking your logo takes them back to the beginning of your site. Elements on a web page work best when they adhere to an inverse relationship between size and frequency; elements that appear on every page should be smaller than an item that appears on it only once.
Navigation
Consistent links and buttons on your site can help visitors understand how your site is structured and where they are within it. Whether your navigation runs across the top of the screen or along the side, make sure its size, color, and placement are consistent on all the pages in your website. The number of navigation items to include on your pages differs depending on the nature of your business and your website. Eight to twelve seems to be the generally
accepted maximum; in many cases, the fewer the better. Once you're into the double digits, you run the risk of weighing down your pages with too many options. If your site consists of sections even if they are one-page sections change your primary navigation to highlight the navigational element for the page or section the visitor is currently looking at or browsing within.
Splash Screens
Whether it's a high-energy, animated Flash commercial or just a static logo or other graphic that "sets the mood" for your website, splash screens are usually unnecessary. Unless your site visitors come to your website to be entertained or surprised, a splash screen will prevent them from getting on with the real reason they are visiting your site. Still not convinced?
One of the fastest-selling consumer electronic devices of the last few years is the digital video recorder, which among its other benefits lets people skip TV commercials. Why put a commercial on your website?
Splash screens often seem to fill a void left by a web designer who hasn't a clue what to put on a site's home page. Web designers who know better often talk about what should go "above the fold" on a web page, meaning the elements that should appear on the screen with no need to scroll down or click through.
("Above the fold" originated in the newspaper industry, where the most prominent place for headlines and articles is the top half of the front page.) Your logo, site navigation, and a short tagline that describes your business should always appear "above the fold" on your home page.
Action Steps
1. Put your company logo on your website.
2. Whether your navigation runs across the top of the screen or along the side, make sure its size, color, and placement are consistent on all the pages in your website.
3. Do not use splash screens.
Important Points
- Building and maintaining a website requires a kind of discipline not required by other forms of publishing.
- Elements on a web page work best when they adhere to an inverse relationship between size and frequency.
- Consistent links and buttons on your site can help visitors understand how your site is structured and where they are within it.
- A splash screen will prevent your visitors from getting on with the real reason they are visiting your site.
The Most Important Components of Your Website - Part 2
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