Introduction
The Internet use has undergone a lot of revolution from the use of the Internet for acquiring information only up to recently where it is almost part and parcel of most people’s lives. The Internet use of the Internet has been redefined to include nearly all aspects of life. You will attend online classes, then meet your friends in the evening on Facebook and Twitter, and then go to the online shop to buy some food for dinner, after this, you wish some people goodnight from your cell phone and get prepared to attend a teleconference meeting tomorrow at eight in the morning, the list could go on and on. All these revolve around websites. The design of any website, therefore, is very important in achieving and attracting the kind of audience needed to use it (Schuman, & Thorson, Pg 409). The blending of the graphics, animations and text in the right proportions will determine the duration that a user will spend on any website. There are websites that will need more graphics and animations than text while there are others that will need more text and informational content than graphics; for example, legal firms’ websites. All these are to be considered when designing any website.
Most of the users of the Internet do not read the contents of the websites exhaustively. Most users skim through the sites looking for specific information from them. The designers are therefore required to design their websites with the use of strategic words. There should be the correct use of words to attract visitors on their first landing page. The designers should know what their users are looking for. The users are driven by their own goals and not our own.
The homepage as a selling tag
The most important to be considered in designing any website is the homepage. The homepage is the very first page loaded when a visitor keys in the site’s URL on the address bar. This page is the selling point of the company. It will either hold the customer for some extra minutes or close the window almost immediately.
The first sites had lots of graphics and it was hard for the viewers to get the message. It took time to load because the graphics were heavy for the browser to download. Homepage content is very important to the users. It should be carefully chosen because this will determine the traffic of the website. My first websites were loaded with graphics on the home page thus taking time to load. Though they were good in the visual appeal, they caused more harm than good to the website in the long run. Website viewers need a few seconds to evaluate the quality of a website. One more thing that should be considered is the primary goal of websites, as they are designed to establish a connection between regular visitors, customers, and common readers. Thus, the homepages should catch the eye of visitors with regard to the content and quality which should be appropriate and meet the expectations of the website owner.
Most web designers are keen on putting a description of the owners of the companies for which they are developing the websites. The homepage is supposed to contain a description of the company. This description should include the logo and tagline. It should cot contain a large description. The tag line should contain a short sentence of a few words that give a description of the company. This description will allow visitors to explain your purpose.
Homepage simple links
Apart from providing a description and identity of the website, the homepage should also provide a really simple way for enabling your users to get what they want. It should contain simple links that are easy and simple to follow. The homepage should have an easy-to-use menu that would allow the visitors to find required information without going deep into unnecessary search engines. The navigation links should contain simple words that are simple for the users to guess where these links will land them too. For an organization to be achieved, the content should be placed in its categories so that content of a particular topic has its own link while other categories also have their own links. This way, the home page will give all the relevant and important links to very important pages. Giving a clearly blended proportion of text, graphics and navigation links are what most website developers value. It is necessary to plan the structure of the website, especially its homepage, in order to provide visitors with user-friendly navigation.
News module
Most of the websites today have a small feature that scrolls the latest news updates and upcoming events for the company. A small feature area on any webpage is a great way to highlight the newest information found on the website (Castells, 2003). There are developments in this area whereby other websites have a blog on their home page. A blog helps to inform regular visitors about the events on the website. New content can provide viewers with information on the latest innovations in the area of technological advancement, sales, and events in the sphere of information and technologies. This way, the readers will get to know the status of the company in terms of profitability; this is a good feature especially for investors and shareholders in the company. Today, all the reader needs to do is get the homepage and they will get the financial information without having to go through the other pages.
This feature is integrated into the website using animation software like Macromedia Flash where a small window is created that will give the events and updates in form of scrolling or presentations. This trend is unlike earlier websites where updates and news had their own page.
The earlier websites could not let the user get the news on their first pages. Those users who were looking for specific information from the first pages could not get the news from the website because they will leave before browsing through the other pages to look for the updates and events in the company. In fact, some of the updates and events had links that were hidden and were difficult for the users to find them. The designers should not have much of the scroll texts as this will be a nuisance to the readers who are interested in the main content but would not mind having knowledge of what is going on in the company.
With the latest technologies on web design, most websites look great with the integration of interactivity with their readers by integrating interactive content in their homepages. To achieve this interactivity, websites include chat rooms, blogs, quizzes, and polls. These features will give the company to know what interests the readers and what areas they need to improve in their websites (Brian, 1999). What the designers should not do is to give much of these features so that the real purpose of the website is defeated. A site newsletter is a sure way of interacting with the reader and will give a surety of return visitors who will be looking for more and up to date information.
The homepage should not fail to provide the contact information. The designer should not force the readers to look for contact information. There should be a link on the homepage which will link the reader with the email address directly. The ability to get feedback from your readers is a sure way to gauge the effectiveness of your website. The comments from the users and readers will help in making a decision on the further improvements to be done on the website. The contact information should be included on the homepage and no other pages to make feedback from the users easy.
Good navigation systems
Website usability is a very crucial matter to be considered in the design of any website. Various needs of different people are satisfied in terms of easy access and the function to surf the internet. Different sections of websites should be designed with regard to the procedure of accessing; a navigation system allows the visitors to search for necessary information within the website (Graham, 1999). A good navigation system is a thumbs-up for any website. The website should provide a clue of where the user is within the website. Web designers should not be left to fumble on where they are within the website. A good website will have pseudo-code which will guide the user on where to go from where they are within the website. It is good to let the user be aware of the page they are viewing. The page currently viewed can be given different coloring to differentiate from the other pages.
Unlike years ago, where it was hard in showing the user where they are within the website, these days there are technologies that make the development of navigation easy. There are technologies like the use of breadcrumbs that give the user a visual representation of where they are.
References
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