Web Site Design Checklist

Home Page Design Tips

The Home Page is the shopfront and usual entry point to your website.
You have only a few seconds to catch the users attention and to encourage them to explore further.

Your Home Page should include most of these features:
  1. Quick loading in less than 8 seconds. This means minimum graphics.
  2. A strong, attention-grabbing headline.
  3. Two to three concise paragraphs of introduction stressing the benefits to the viewer.
  4. A comprehensive site menu.
  5. Contact information.
  6. E-mail reply facility.
  7. Site menu.
  8. "What's New" button if appropriate
  9. Privacy statement.
  10. Link to an online survey or newsletter subscription.
  11. Site search facility.


General Design Tips

The fundamentals of a winning Web site include:
  1. Good, useful content. Always remember that "Content is King". That is the only reason for having a website.
  2. Your website must be optimized for search engines. This should be your design starting point ...
  3. Optimize several pages for search engine indexing.
  4. Forget Frames and Flash if your main promotion is through search engines.
  5. Once again, good clean graphics. Do not overdesign your Web site. The more graphics you put into it, the slower the pages download to the viewer. No longer than 8 seconds to load.
  6. Readability (e.g., no green type on a blue background) - keep your page designs straightforward.
  7. Simple approach to conveying information.
  8. Easy, concise Navigation.
  9. Ease of use.
  10. Speed.
  11. Continually ask yourself "Why does this site exist?" and "What are we selling?" ...
  12. Always stress the benefits not the features of your products or services.
  13. A large site needs a navigation history along the top of the page.
  14. Always put a Home button on each page.
  15. Contact information on each page.
  16. A good, clear site map is important.
  17. FAQ or Help is usually welcomed.
  18. Links to other useful complimentary sites.
  19. Viewers do not like to scroll more than about two screens so keep pages short.
  20. Printer friendly pages are always welcomed.