Pages Of The Site example essay topic

What makes a good website? Introduction In my opinion what makes a good web page? I have been on the net for the last, can't really believe it, coming to ten years now. From the conception to now, I have been a regular surfer on the web, visiting thousands of pages a month, mostly in search of some thing or another.

Most searches have lead to even more searches but some times I come up tops. Having been used to the all text sites of the beginning, and seeing the first implementations of more graphic based sites, there was a three-year lapse where I rarely got to surfing and missed a whole evolution in web page. When I returned in full to surfing, I discovered the face of the internet have started to change. Buttons with pictures, navigation systems, some that even worked, all and all better thought out sites that where pleasing to look at and better to work with. This was probably due to the introduction of java script and more complex versions of html. Before then what made a sight good or bad, for me, was more based on contents.

As this change came to be my expectations of sites changed as well. When, at first, we where happy to have hyperlinked, underlined blue text, now we expect to have a good, easy to use, constant navigation system. Where bad resolution bitmaps where the norm, now we want smooth animated graphics. The way we use the internet have changed with the advances in technology, so changing our expectations and creating a whole new set of problems for anyone, from the big spenders to backroom designers, how to get our attention and how to keep us coming back. First impressions: The first thing that I look for in a web site is definitely something to draw my attention. I am not picky, but it normally comes in the style of some sort of graphic.

Will it be the company logo, background image, or even just the colour used in the background, any of them can make me take a second look and so giving the designer a chance to get me into the rest of the site. The newer sites these days come with splash pages, advertising to you what you can expect on the inside, but like all advertising can become its own undoing by either chasing you away in the first place or misrepresenting what you are going to find there. So, a good splash page has its advantages if used sensibly by keeping it simple and graphic, just hope all the viewers will have high bandwidth. As flashy graphics go, flash, for me personally is the way to go. If the net keeps progressing as it does at the moment, by the end of this cycle of web design, all the sites will have some type of flash feature.

The quality of image, smoothness of movement and the interactivity makes it visually pleasing to use and so makes your site more desirable. I have been to sites where there are barely any content but just because it was so good to look at and very interactive, it got me to stick around for minutes, which are lifetimes more than what I even spend on a good, normally made site. (volkswagen. com's new golf and polo pages) For the time being, while all the bandwidth and processors catch up with the possibilities that are available, I am happy with a site that has at least clear, noise free graphics. There is nothing as bad as going to a site, that would probably not been so bad if you looked at its other features and content, have it not been for the badly captured images. Poor scans or substandard software used in creating a logo or head of the page can really break it in the first second, forcing me to click on the back button. Colour coding is also something that should not be left to the interior decorators. Colours that make your eyes hurt is never a good way to keep people glued to your site.

I'm a blue person, so soft shades of blue, maybe with a texture is winner. Also, you can't go to wrong with an interesting shade of grey. As long as it is not overpowering the whole site, it can be a bonus to have a rather neutral background. Again the thing of keeping it simple, even in the sense of backgrounds that doesn't draw away from the content and make the page easier to work with (macro media. com).

Not using clashing colours is important, so, different shades of one colour used makes for a pleasant view, just using different text colours or inlays to spice it up a bit. Usability: After the first three seconds is up, and the site still has my attention, usability of the site is the one that will make me stick around. Usability comes in many forms, and has many ingredients to it. For a start, the layout is the most important.

You can have good graphics but bad layout, and your site is ruined. Not thinking further than your own computer screen is a big mistake. If a page does not fit my screen when I open it up it already lost some points, so standardized width is a bonus that all good sites have. Even if you don't fill up the screen on bigger resolutions, having it usable on all is n good point (like nokia. com or cnn. com). Where you place everything is going to make it a good site or not. The simple points of usability is certainly obvious for someone who has spent some time on bad sites, not that I think I'm pro at this, but off course they are catering for me as well when they are building the sites.

Basic layout is very important, and by that, I mean, the basics in layout. Having things in places where you think people are going to look is a good start. If you have to look for a link to the main page from the splash page, then forget about getting much traffic. If the main page does not give you at least the intro to what is going on because you have to scrawl down for a minute to get to the main idea, then you have a looser page. What makes a basic layout good? If the page opens and I get an instant idea what is going on and where I am, and I can see how to navigate around the site.

That is the biggest thing in usability: Navigation. How can a site be usable if you can't navigate around it? Surly it can't. Large part of a usable navigation is in its placing. Popular, and what I think looks and works best, is the sites with the navigation at the top (again macro media. com or nokia. com). Others that work good that are also popular are the side bar, normally on the left.

What makes navigation usable? Well, I have seen some good placed and designed navigation systems, that have text on them that are not readable or does not ring any normal bells. So good looking, but also easily understandable is best. Colours plays a big roll in the understand ability of the navigation.

Having rollover buttons make for a good bar in the way that it lets you know that there is a link in the first place and that you are clicking on the right space or link that you think you are. Sound is not as important yet, but I think in the near future sound is going to make a difference in a good or better navigation bar. Speaking rollover buttons anyone? Something to think about, anyway.

Keeping a navigation system at a constant place from when the site is entered, and that it appears on every page on the same place, makes the site certainly more usable for me. Not making it to complicated also is also best, and don't have someone have to go through 15 links to get to the page where they want to get. Three links are best for me. Something that is coming in to fashion, and I don't know why it has taken so long, which makes also a part of the navigation, and certainly makes for usability is the site map. It gives you it all, laid out in front of you so nothing is more than one click away. For me the old fashioned Dos style root layout works best.

You get the idea of where every page fits into the site and for me visual cues give more info than some text based site maps that lists the pages of the site. Again, I have not seen so many site maps so there could be better designs out there that I have not seen yet, but I'll keep looking. Normal page layout and placing of subjects on the page is getting more important as people surf more and get use to the standard way of seeing stuff. For instance, a site that has the logo at the top and advertising at the sides are seen as an effective site these days, seeing that people have changed the way they look and respond to certain spaces on a page. I am not a fan of the ads along the side, it makes it look a bit cluttered, but if you have to advertise, then that is the way to do it (mtv 3. fi). Not overpowering with text or graphics is good too.

Keeping it balanced is the key. Keeping it short and headline style on the opening pages keeps the layout clean and easily understandable. Hyper-linking text headlines are also a good idea to get the things going. Content Content is not as big a deal these days as it used to be. You can't make a good site without a server load of information, says who? Again, we are changing in our expectations of what the web delivers.

The contents that the sites present to us is getting more varied by the days, getting more ideas from T.V. and film, moving more into visual presentation of ideas without pages of txt to back it up. I can again point to the new Volkswagen golf site that is mostly an interactive video with little txt but a lot of info, in its own way. Sure, I am not going to go there every day, because it won't get updated with new features anytime soon, but it serves as an interactive advertisement. Cnn could never make as site like this because it will not serve their cause.

As content go on a more informational, traditional site, it has to be good. Well-structured text that does not drag on and on just to fill up the space. A nicely headlined and paragraphed text makes for easy reading and gives more integrity to the site, even just at site value. Putting the text in normal Ariel in no specific space or order makes for a cheap looking, unprofessional site. Just putting it in a frame in a different colour, as if it belongs somewhere makes the content look better and more believable too. Tables that are visible are hopefully a thing of the past.

Don't even think of using one and be taken seriously these days. They are left over dinosaurs from html version 1 that looked cool then but are now just sad. Using them are fine, letting people see at first glance that you did, well? Content will be content, and there are as many ways to translate the content to your viewers as there are different subjects to have contents about. One thing that does not change, no matter what you are trying to get across, making it clear, simple and easy to understand is the most important.

Setting the mood You have to try and set an atmosphere for your site as you would set an atmosphere for a restaurant or a museum or a news room. This is topic sensitive, and important if you want people to come back. Check out London-dungeon. com and you can see what is supposed to be like to shape an atmosphere on a site. It just gives that little more to a site, makes it as if the person who made the site was serious about it and knows what they want to say. It makes for a more professional feel to it.

It is easier to give it to your site these days with the bigger bandwidths available to translate your vision in graphics and sound, so I can't really blame sites of the past for not having a lot of atmosphere, the designers were limited by so many things. The future is going to have all the sites have a lot more of feel to them, more personality. Relating the brand image is going to be, and get, more brought into the focus with the use of graphics and sound in the near future. Animated logos and headings that will make you interact more with the site, and who knows how far personalization goes, user profiles could one day customize the way you see a certain company's site, compared to someone in a deferent age or social bracket. Could get interesting but brings a lot of obstacles and work for the designers of the future. Other features Some features that I like in sites are when the company gives the user a chance to interact with the company and the site.

Be it through the graphics that they use or through the use of message boards or in site feedback forms. Getting the person that visits the site feel more part of your company and making them interact in a pleasant way, will make it more memorable and will keep them coming back. There is a new way of polling people that I have seen witch was very interesting. Through the use of a slider you change the appearance of a picture, stating how you feel through the response in the picture you just manipulated. Sure there are numeric values behind it, but to the user it is fun to do and looks much better than the old style of clicking the radio buttons. Maybe not for all applications but it works good for others.

Streaming video is something that I like on sites. Bbc. co. uk has loads of current, up to date video links that are just a click away. All the headlines form all over the world, in English, at the click of a mouse. Hotmail has the best streaming video that I've seen, and I would really like to figure out how it works.

How are they able to bring to you, clear, near perfect streaming clips without you having to load something consciously? Even on slower connections I have received nice looking, fast video clips, all advertising of course. That really impressed me and I would like to see it in more sites and use it myself. Important feature is selecting the language. If you know that you are possibly going to cater for a multilingual crowd, you have to have the option of looking at the site in more than one language. To great frustration, there are so many sites that I can not access just because the designers clearly forgot about the international market when they designed the site.

Not only alienating English speaking customers inside the country, but also possible investors from outside the borders. Stupid feature as old as the internet it self, but one that I definitely like, is the links page. Giving the people a chance of connecting to related material could be good for you and for building relationships with other companies. Some of the best information I ever got was form links on sites to related sites that even the search engines could not find. Definitely not for all types of business, can you see nokia with a link to Siemens or Motorola? A simple feature that I like a lot is, if I have some input to make to a site is the in-site e-mail feature.

Where you can, at the click of a button, get a place to write what you feel you have to contribute and then have the chance to send it just there and then to the right persons concerned, not just to get a email address that you have to copy and paste and in the end gets lost somewhere along the line. Also using the Microsoft's in built webmaster email replies have never worked for me and I think are a waste of time. Conclusion There are so many things that make for a good and successful site that it is really hard to say what is good and what is not. What works for you and your target group is what is going to be good for you, and that is rarely the same from business to business.

Keeping in mind who your target segment is, is the most important when building a site. You have to keep in think what their capabilities are and what they are used to seeing. Keeping it simple, making it visually pleasing with the right feel to it while including all the features that your visitors expect form you is what is going to make your site good in its own way.