E-Commerce

"Characteristics of a Good Website"

E-commerce existence really burst in the world of business. And internet is the tool they provide to stay and to be competitive in this area and one of the factor they really on is their web area. Web designing is one of the aspect that help progress the one’s business. Online business done by companies is one of the factors that the companies save their resources and gain profit those are the things that the company are really working now. It is there new way of interaction between clients or consumers and producers. In order customer will always buy in their store, there are qualities of their product that the customers really like and as a producer you always stick to those qualities. Like any other, in terms of products customers really like affordable products but it has a standard quality or expensive but suite to the product because it will last long. Just like any other ways to give clients or customers the satisfaction they want and the impression producers pursue in online shopping having a good characteristics or qualities of your web page is important.

From wekipidea.com, a web site is a collection of information about a particular topic or subject. Designing a web site is defined as the arrangement and creation of web pages that in turn make up a web site. A web page consists of information for which the web site is developed. A web site might be compared to a book, where each page of the book is a web page.

There are many aspects (design concerns) in this process, and due to the rapid development of the Internet, new aspects may emerge. For non-commercial web sites, the goals may vary depending on the desired exposure and response.

To an article where anyone can give their suggestion on what is highly recommended to apply in your web area that customer likes and people can rate the given perspective from different people the most chosen best quality of the page is “That the user is always right. Read that book (The User is Always Right). Makes things make sense and accessible to all. Have links labeled clearly and go where they say they are going.”

Having clearly stated links or directions where the user can clearly understand is a very big point to the site user will not having a difficulty to search and to know what your site all about. Also the reaction or feedbacks or even suggestion coming from the customer is very important that the producer will take. Customer really knows what they want and they don’t.

Having a good web page it will help the companies’ success. Then is a well-done designed website or web page? “It is a website that combines in it all the ingredients like it is user friendly, search friendly, and presents a theme in an impressive way. A successful web site is a site that converts most of its visitors into customers.” There are several characteristics that to be taken into action by those having their web site.

Content

Having sense and quality content fill-in to your website which can provide users with the information they are looking for. Content also allows you to establish yourself as an expert in your field. When your website visitors are looking to make a purchase they will feel more comfortable with your products and services if you have built their trust and confidence through what you have written on your website.
Keyword-filled content is also crucial for getting high search engine rankings. Most internet users trust search engines to help them find what they are looking for. Taking the time to create high quality content can have huge payoffs through increased search engine rankings.

Before beginning on a website design, define objectives and site purpose. A ood design takes into account the site purpose and works towards it. The site content should be up-to-date and reflect the main goals of your site.

In the content all the information about the site and the company are stated. Also, the purpose or the objective of the website can be clearly seen and understand. The content that is in the page should focus on the company really offered to their customer the services they provided any other information that not really defined their purpose will not necessary to be in the site.

The content said to be “the substance, and information on the site should be relevant to the site and should target the area of the public that the website is concerned with.”

Simple and Attractive Design

Usually customers like attractive page with all the color and picture which is very lively but simple that suite to the customer’s eyes. ”The design of a good website should be simple, yet professional. The design should not take away or distract from the content. Websites with excessive use of Flash and moving images can be very distracting. Use design to help you get your message to visitors, not to distract them from the message. Colors should not be hard on the eyes, and text should be easy to read.”
“While creating a web design, always remember that first impression is the last impression. A good website layout and attractive graphics will attract a lot of visitors to your site. But, once the visitor is there, he needs much more than just a good design to hold him on.”

The appearance of the site also should also be: the graphics and text should include a single style that flows throughout, to show consistency. The style should be professional, appealing and relevant.

Easy navigation

When scrolling down and exploring to site customers can really understand and can easily find the navigation they want. If the customers can have difficulty in finding the navigation it will not make up the mood of the customers and they will not feel to explore the site again.

“Navigation and links provide opportunities to incorporate design elements in to the website; however, navigation schemes should not be so elaborate that the user has trouble knowing where to click to move to another page. The average visitor’s attention span is a matter of seconds, and if it is hard to find what he or she is looking for, you will loose that visitor very quickly. Links to your most important pages should be easily found on every page. A good rule of thumb is that every page should be accessible in two clicks from your home page (this may not be possible with larger sites).”

Unique

Website that contains a concept that there is no match to other site and that is new to people’s eyes. “The most successful websites will stand out from the crowd. There are a number of was that you can make your website stand out: better design, high quality articles, a blog, a newsletter, some type of resource or tool. Find something that would be appealing to your target market.”

Fresh

Updating your site is very appropriate to do. Information extend and broaden as time goes by. Their will many things added and there are taken or being removed. Through that “Having a website that changes or is updated frequently will encourage repeat visitors. Repeat visitors will be more loyal and more likely to buy. There are a few different options for keeping your site fresh:

“5.1 Update the site and add content occasionally - This will require you to either pay a designer or do the work yourself.”

“5.2 Use a blog - With a blog you can add content to your website from any computer with an internet connection. All you’ll have to do is login and type. No special software or skills are required.”

“5.3 RSS feeds - With RSS feeds you can add news headlines, weather, stock tickers, etc. to your website. Additionally, you can add content from most blogs to your site with RSS. The benefit of RSS feeds is that once in place they will automatically update.”

Optimized

“A successful website will be search engine-friendly. Optimization includes things like using page titles and meta tags for all of your pages. Using headers and alt tags for images can also help optimization and accessibility. Even a website that is strong in other areas but weak in optimization may be hard for users to find.”

Usability

A website should be easy and intuitive to use. Navigation should be easily accessed on every page: the general rule is that 2 clicks or less should get you to any page of the site. Complex navigation structure will frustrate your visitors and they will leave your site immediately if they cannot find what they are looking for.

Knowing the Audience

Who are the intended audience? Older people might have trouble seeing contrasts in certain colours, children might need larger navigation buttons, the overall design and atmosphere will depend on your intended audience.

Defining the audience is a key step in the website planning process. The audience is the group of people who are expected to visit your website – the market being targeted. These people will be viewing the website for a specific reason and it is important to know exactly what they are looking for when they visit the site. A clearly defined purpose or goal of the site as well as an understanding of what visitors want to do or feel when they come to your site will help to identify the target audience. Upon considering who is most likely to need or use the content, a list of characteristics common to the users such as:Audience Characteristics, Information Preferences, Computer Specifications, and Web Experience.

Taking into account the characteristics of the audience will allow an effective website to be created that will deliver the desired content to the target audience.

The structure of the page or site is very important also like the following:

Colour scheme. Some colours look awful together. This isn't a decision to make lightly. Look at a colour wheel and read about how it works, this will become invaluable when it comes to choosing the right colours.

Text. Don't make it too small. Don't make it hard to read against the background (for example, bright red text on a dark blue background - people actually do this! Ack!).

Black text on white background is usually best, but not neccasary.

And for crying out loud, don't use some fancy, hard to read font that most computers don't have anyway as the main body of text. That is seriously just evil.

Use a sans serif font as your main text (headings you don't neccasarily have to), Verdana is especially made for viewing on the computer.

Layout. Usually made up of a heading banner, a horizontal or vertical navigation bar, the content part, and the footer. However, more artistic Flash sites might stray completely from this. It's up to you.
Just make sure that it is easy to navigate and looks appealing. A good way to get inspiration is to look at a website that sells web templates. Don't copy them, but you can get great ideas from them.

The layout should be consistent on every page of the website.

Using tables for your design layout is rather outdated now. It may be useful in some cases, but not generally.

It is now CSS. With CSS, you can have the written content and the layout completely separate from each other and it is so much more flexible and easier to use than tables.
Dreamweaver makes using CSS especially easy.

Accessability. Each image should be fixed so that text appears when the cursor hovers over it. This should explain what the image is of. This is mainly used for people with a disability.

The whole site should be easy to naviagate through and not confuse people with cryptic navigation bar names or a cluttered, muddled up page.

If your navigation bar is made with Flash, then you might consider having the navigation again in the footer for people that can't view Flash.

Every computer uses different browsers and different versions of these browsers (Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, Navigator, etc) and different screen resolutions. Test your website to make sure it works in various browsers and screen sizes.

References:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080227002750AACN1qr
http://www.webreference.com/greatsite.html
http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/characteristics-of-a-good-website/
http://seo-kolkata.blogspot.com/2007/07/web-content-writing-characteristics-of.html
http://ezinearticles.com/?7-Characteristics-Of-A-Great-Webpage&id=155509
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_design

8 comments:



rejserenity said...

aw.. in planning the website design still., the content must must be the priority.^^ and making xur that the website u are developing is not amateur

glaiglay said...

website design should remain simple and direct to the point... unnecessary icons, texts should be excluded..

Anonymous said...

yes in order for a website to be more effective the content must have the sense of giving right information. Also the design must be good to the eye to be more attractive to the users.

marco said...

webpage layout and design should be simple but neat.. just like what u stated..

marco said...

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snage said...

yes, i think that there are alot of things to consider when developing a website, so better look out for helpful advices.

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The Rice Creator said...

yeah nice and simple......... that's all mae