What Makes A Good Web Site?

There are a lot of really great web sites around, but equally there are some that are terrible, so what makes the difference?

It may be helpful to break web sites into three parts. The first is the design and style, the second is the content (text and images) and the third is the 'techie' code that makes it all work. If any one of these three things is not up to scratch, then it lets down the whole site. Let's look at each of these three things in more detail.

Design and Style

The design of a web site creates the first impression and may either draw in, or repel potential customers. The design should be attractive and should be appropriate to your business. It should have lasting appeal - some designs may have a 'Wow' factor, but become very tiresome after a while.

When deciding on a style it should be remembered that the design is simply a container for the content. A web site may look great, but people will not stay long if there is nothing of interest on it. Part of the web site design is the navigation which is extremely important. Viewers need to know where they are on a site and how to move around the site. There should be clearly marked navigation buttons and as a rule viewers should not have to click their mouse more than three times to find what they want. Some web sites may look fantastic, but their unconventional design and layout makes them difficult to use.

Content

The content is the most important part of the web site and the reason for it's existence. People visit a site for information. Presenting that information in an attractive way is important, but not as important as the information itself. A good web site will anticipate what people want to know and will make it easy to find.

It is also important that the right amount of content is supplied. If a web site only gives a customer part of the details they need then they will still have make a phone call, so nothing has been acheived. On the other hand, if a customer simply wants to find out the opening times of a store, they don't want to have to trawl through hundreds of words, photographs and special offers. Every element on a web site should be there for a purpose. Quality is better than quantity

Program Code (the hidden bits)

Behind a good web site is a mass of seemingly unintelligible code - a mixture of XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, Flash and other stuff. This is the realm of the web developer. For a web page to display properly a web developer has to insert invisible instructions all around the text and images. This code has to work with all popular web browsers - both the latest versions and older versions. The developer has to bear in mind that some people might view the web pages on a large desktop monitor, whilst others might be viewing it on a mobile phone screen. The developer also has to use a variety of techniques to make sure that the pages download in as short a time as possible and that the web site is optimised for search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

It is easy to notice when this job has not be done very well. The web pages may load slowly on your PC or get stuck, you may see odd error messages pop up, links may not work, or elements may be in the wrong place or overlap each other. A good web developer will also make sure that the code is 'clean' and complies with accepted standards. This may not appear to make any difference initially, but if the code is non-standard it may not work in the future.

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"Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant."

Mitchell Kapor, 1950-

Co-founder of The Elecronic Frontier Foundation.

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"Web users ultimately want to get at data quickly and easily. They don't care as much about attractive sites and pretty design."

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"Usability is an essential goal of any website, and usable navigation is something every website needs. It determines where users are led and how they interact with the website. Without usable navigation, content becomes all but useless."

Tim Berners-Lee, 1955-

Sir Timothy Berners-Lee is an engineer, scientist and professor at MIT. He is credited with inventing the World Wide Web.