In the final installment of Site Design 101, I want to emphasize simplicity, context, and consistency. These guidelines for web design can be adapted to the needs of any site and any business, and have proven their value over time.

Keep the experience simple

When thinking about the design of your website, keep it simple. Focus on your main reasons for wanting a website. It’s a good idea to write down your top three to five goals for the site, and be disciplined about sticking to these points. It’s also a good idea to follow design rules.

For example, limit your choice of colors to a single palette and use colors consistently. Garish colors can be distracting at best and unprofessional at worst. Limit your pages to necessary topics and features so customers are not overwhelmed with too much information. Keep your features simple and useful.

Make sure features are needed to meet customer goals. Extraneous bells and whistles often get in the way and are distracting to customers. Short pages that meet your customer’s goals usually perform better than long scrolling pages with too much information.

State the obvious clearly and in context

It might be cliché to say, state the obvious, but when designing your site keep the obvious in front of your customers. If you are adding links to keywords or subpages within your site, make them highly visible in terms of color and bold/underlined typeface. (And remember to follow established conventions – see Site Design 101- Part 1). You also want to make the features of your site fit into the logical place or context, what I call “the customers point of need,” like a pay now link on your checkout page, and feedback forms post-order and on products pages or an “add to shopping cart” button on product pages.

Consistency is key

Perhaps the biggest feature on a Website that needs to be adhered to is consistency. Consider following consistent rules around page layout, color palettes and  type faces. Your Website is an extension of your brand and you want to make sure that you portray consistent messaging, too. For instance if you market yourself as the best local winery, you’ll want to emphasize that message on all products and services. This also holds true with the style of images used on your site. If you’re using product images, take the time to get photos of new products taken professionally in favor of a quick snapshot from your camera. These little things not only help build your brand, but also help make your customers’ experience that much better.

By following these site design tips and guidelines you can build up a site that meets your customer goals and your business goals, for mutual benefit.  It’s also important to keep in mind that a site is in a living breathing entity that can always be improved, so be ready to constantly evolve to meet the changing demands and  needs of your customers.

Recap:

• Understand customers’ goals
• Site testing
• Keep the customer in mind
• Follow Web conventions
• Use plain language
• Short and Sweet
• Keep the experience simple
• State the obvious clearly and in context
• Consistency is key

To read part 1 and part 2 of this post, click on the links.

From time to time, members from the VistaPrint staff will contribute articles to the VistaPrint Small Business Blog. Today we have a post from Kirk Doggett, the User Experience Principal at VistaPrint.