When developing or conceptualizing a web site design, the most important first step is to prepare a layout concept and then decide on the features. Many elements make up a website such as images, content text, graphics, audio, video, flash or other forms of media which in the whole contribute to the overall feel of the site, and assists with building a brand identity for your company and its products and / or services.
Graphics and images are used often in web site design as the core design element for the web sites “template” or “graphical layout”. A web site’s layout gives a site its unique identity which assists with branding and recognition of your brand.
You want your web site design to be simple, yet effective. That is the aim, the goal, the real deal. This is what you want to achieve for your web site design. This will keep customers happy. Often a company or person wants to have a lot of “cool” stuff on their website, make it look hip and current with lots of flash animations, music and other media elements. They expect this will push quick traffic to their site because of the “wow” factor. The truth is this can actually do just the opposite. When you are starting out with your online ventures, you should really keep things clean, professional and simple. This way the real goal, to inform and/or to sell your product or service is the main focus.
As much as possible, you should try to stay away from all the multi-media rich bells and whistles on your web site design. This will also mean keeping down load times for your pages. You are a new company on the net, and the last thing you want is spending lots of time and money to attract visitors, and then lose them before they even explore your site because of long load times or having to install a plug-in for their browsers.
Getting a web site design online and running is not a big deal. Getting visitors to your site is a larger issue, and once you spend time and or money to do that, it is a shame if you lose them because of an ineffective web site.
