Website-look-and-feel

Website look and feel

This is what a lot of people refer to as "design" and what a lot of companies pay most for in the building of their websites.  The thinking is that the cleverer, the more artistic, the noisier, the flashier a site is the more successful a site will be.  This thinking is shallow and mistaken.

The most successful site in the world is the most simple;  www.google.com

You must, however, have a professional-looking site.  There must be balance, items that should line up must line up, images should be produced or modified by professionals using Photoshop or its equivalent, there must be no spelling or grammar mistakes and so on. 

Your site is not in line for the Turner Prize but it should be in line for the most helpful/informative/easy-to-use site yet built.

Use dark background colours sparingly and don’t use reverse video.  DON’T SHOUT.  Don’t use ridiculous fonts and avoid shrieking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   All these tend to be in the "see-how-clever-I-am" category and almost certainly have nothing to do with what your site is about or your visitor is looking for.  Not only are they a distraction, they make reading difficult (scientific fact).  Use logos sparingly and only use "house" colours to brand a page, not dominate it.

Start with a clean, white background.  Lines are obstacles for the eye to surmount so only use when necessary and soften them; black lines (--------) should be grey (---------), for instance.  Definitely use appropriate images (a page which is just black writing on a white background is really boring) but don’t overdo them.  They must be the highest quality available.  Write your messages and then edit the words, edit them again and again until they are the fewest that can be use to convey what you have to say.