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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.