No one intentionally designs a bad website. Rather, a bad website is often the result of a variety of reasons ranging from a lack of understanding of the goal at hand, to what is essential rather than a distraction in a design.
Jeffrey Veen, author of “The Art and Science of Web Design” states
Designers can create normalcy out of chaos; they can clearly communicate ideas through the organizing and manipulating of words and pictures.
Just how first time parents consult baby books for tips and advice on raising a newborn, designing a website is not something you just jump into. It is a process that combines careful planning, an understanding of your target markets potential interaction and creativity.
To help assist those looking to design a new website, we have spotlighted the following infographic by KISSmetrics which features tips and advice on ways to attract potential customers as well as ways to keep user frustration to a minimum.
Here are our top 3 tips from the infographic that every website designer and business owner should be mindful of:
- Bad Navigation. Quick tip – Stay away from complex and overly confusing navigation tools. Keeping things simple means visitors to your site will be able to find what they are looking for the quickest.
- Bad Content Structure. Quick tip – Make sure that what you want people to read or take action on (email newsletter) is easy to find. Similar to the tip on improving a sites navigation, content should be easily available to a user. Having them ‘search’ for something will decrease your conversion and retention rates.
- Lack of Frequency. Quick tip – A great ‘looking’ website is a start. Be sure to give users a reason to come back to your website by regularly updating it. No one wants to come back to a website that hasn’t been updated for 6 months.
What are some of your favorite website designs? Link us to what you think are the best website designs on the web in the comment section below!
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Tip by Jun Loayza:
And if you guys are looking for a quick, educational laugh, check out this post by the oatmeal: What I want from a restaurant website.
For small businesses on a budget, then I recommend using any easy, self-hosted WordPress installation with a custom theme. I’ve used http://www.bluehost.com/ in the past because they’re cheap and have excellent customer service. Give them a call and they can walk you through how to do a WordPress installation on your site.
Once you have that done, you’ll need to get a good theme. Check out the following links for some free and premium themes for your website:
- http://www.nthemes.net/category/wordpress/restaurant-themes/
- http://www.restaurantwordpressthemes.net/
- http://www.aoclarkejr.com/premium-restaurant-wordpress-themes.html
If you have a ~$1,000 budget for a website, then http://99designs.com/ is a great place to get designers to compete for your bid. $1,000 should cover a good custom design, coding, and installation onto WordPress.