Small Business Websites That Work
By Sean McManus
Published by Prentice Hall (Pearson)
- Buy 'Small Business Websites That Work'
- Book website homepage
- Read the introduction in full
- Free chapter: Planning your website and creating the content
- Read reviews
- About the author
What makes a good website?
Anything that gets in the way of what customers need is bad design, however nice it looks.
At a glance:
Chapter Summary
The website design is the packaging for the site's content and must help people to access it quickly. Part of the design challenge is making sites that work for different computers and browser programs, and you'll need to make sure that the site is tested on the most important ones.
Anything that might cause an accessibility problem needs to be an added extra on the site, and not central to its function.
You might need to steer your designers towards effective design for your business, rather than impressive design, and you'll need to take special care with graphics.
You can use the checklists in this chapter to vet designs for any amateur clichés and make sure that the site follows the guidelines for good design.
The subheadings in this chapter are:
- Introduction
- The importance of good website design
- The website design challenge
- Using plug-ins to enhance your site
- Using pictures
- Technology tips: images
- Navigating your website
- Using images in navigation
- The role of the homepage
- Using internet convention
- Technology tips: internet convention
- Behind the scenes
- Testing the site design
- Summary
- Checklist: Good website design
- Checklist: Website design crimes
Updates at this site
- Maintaining website quality
- Read how Tesco made its website accessible to the blind
- Speed up your website
- Read how I designed this website
- My page of website maintenance tools
Cartoon: Cran & Lerma
Cran & Lerma ©Nik Scott. Visit his site and commission cartoons from him at www.nikscott.com