If you ask me - I'll tell you how to make a great website. Ten things every usable website should strive for.

1). Design for the common demoninator

Ever notice how the major corporates online have some things in common? We expect certain things when we browse websites, they have become commonplace design conventions.

For example - position of logos. Most if not all sites position their logos in the top left of the site. And they are linked to the home page. Take Amazon.co.uk for example - it links to the homepage on EVERY page. Where is the search box - its on the right hand, just like it is on the Microsoft.com home page, or on Ebay.co.uk. There are a number of elements within a page that should be in certain place, the following are a list of what should go where:

a). Contact Us
Should appear on every page. A link to this should be on every page. After all, if you are selling online, this is what people are looking for at the end of the sale process.

b). Logo - Top Left of the page

Users expect to find the company brand quickly, top left of the page is the first place they will look. Remember people read left to right, starting at the top and working your way down to the bottom.

c). Search - Top Right

The majority of users expect to find your search box in the top right of the screen, assuming that you have one. Searches are generally only applicable for large sites, but once your site gets big enough, they are essential. Their operation needs to be extremely accurate, because search is generally a last ditch attempt to find something on your site. Remember that monitoring what people are search for on your website may be extremely important to your business and should be monitored to help with marketing.


2). Keep it Sticky

What brings you back to any of the websites you visit on a regular basis? Generally, you will come back for a few reasons, primarily content. Teach me something and I'll come back for more. Entertain me, make me laugh, and I'll come back for more. Stir any of my emotions, and I'll come back for more. Show me something new and I'll come back because I'm nosey. Plant ideas in my head, and I'll feel empowered. Fail to keep your website fresh, with fresh content and neither search engines or visitors will come back for more.

3). Keep it Simple

I dont want to think when I'm viewing your webpage, I want the answers to the questions I'm asking. Is this company reputable, who else have they worked with, what is the standard of their work like, will I get value for money, are they professional. Answer these questions and you'll get a sale. Fail to do so, and I'm off laughing on a camel. K.I.S.S. Keep it simple stupid.

4). Common Sense Tactics

Contrary to popular belief, people are easily scared online. It's the fear of the unknown. Therefore dont surprise your visitors with links that say click here - unless you've told them in the copy what they can expect to find. Don't think that the latest flash, spinning logo is going to impress them either - if they wanted flashing lights they'd go to a disco, keep the fancy stuff classy. People have become accustomed to things that flash being advertisements online.

5). Make it sexy. But not too revealing.

Please hire a professional designer. They are worth their weight in gold. Unless your brand is plain Jane Jacob Nielson, make sure your website looks sexy, but doesn't go for the extreme. Sometimes there is such a thing as too much graphics. Dont make your Website like the Madame Tussauds, impressive the first time you see it, but you don't go back for years, because there's nothing new, and nothing of substance.

6). Make it lightweight. Cache me while you can.

Web users expect an experience when they visit your site. Make sure that its not a slow one, by using lightweight XHTML code, CSS style sheets, server side caching, external javascripts, images in style sheets, and valid standards compliant code, you can give your visitors the content they want at speed. Browser Caching provides a great way of delivering content faster to your visitors.


7). Give users control

Dont take away visitor preferences, allow users to change text size by using ems, rather than pixel width sizes. You dont know whether a potential visitor is potentially poor of sight. Therefore forcing them to view your site in a particular font size is going to annoy them. The same goes with browser size. Dont force a user to view your website at a certain resolution, long gone are the days that state that you need certain browsers or monitor sizes to view a website. Again look at the major corporates for a good indicator on this.

8). Leaves out the gimmicks

Please dont ask us to create Flash intros for your website. There are a number of reasons why these are bad news. Flash intros show a lack of understanding of your website visitors. They dont want marketing bumfph shoved down their necks the minute they visit your site, they want the information THEY want. Flash intros are slow to load, and provide nothing more than a barrier to the real information on your website. The skip intro button has got to be the most clicked on button on the Internet. Flash intros are also bad news for search engine robots, who cant get to the real content on your site because they can't read the flash file. Don't use flash for the sake of using flash, and as Jacob says, everything has it's place, but Flash is 99% bad.

9) Maintain Consistency

Maintaining Website consistency is key in keeping visitors. This goes hand in hand with common sense tactics. A user will quickly become disconcerted with a website changing its navigation methods half way through browsing, and may leave the website as a result.

10) Clean Layout

A website with a clean layout style, coupled with legible font colours has the edge over a graphically heavy website, with poor legibility. Remember that content is always king, give users what they want as quickly as possible. The message you portray is your brand, and as such is a reflection of the service you offer to visitors in the real world.