The website I am creating needs to revolve around the user and their experience when visiting the site, due to the fact that many people when browsing sites only look for a few seconds before deciding weather or not to explore further or leave I will have to make the design count in those few seconds.
I will need a good layout that uses elements where they should be, all the text needs to be legible, the site needs to load quickly. I need to have consistency within the design; the fonts, logo, navigation needs to be the same throughout the site. The site needs to be accessible to people with disabilities.
Content - The content that I use will need to be suitable to the website (pretty obvious) it will also need to have correct alternative text which comes under accessibility, the content must also be compressed in such a way that it loads quickly but still has similar if not the same quality of the original, this also comes under accessibility.
Text - The style/size/font of the text needs to remain the same throughout the pages, I will also need to have headers that are styled to suit the site and which separate the text and acts as a bite size piece of information on what the text is about, as I said before users will not stay on the site if the information isn't there straight away for them where they can easily see and pick the relevant points that they want out.
The site that I create needs to be accessible, for most if not all the users, this means i need to take into account statistical data of current trends.
SEO - Search engine optimisation is the process that I will do so that when the site is searched for it comes up on the search engine - preferably at the top if done well - by doing this I will get a more hits to the site which will drive the project forward as more people see the site advertised online.
Alternate text - Alternate text is used as a "readable image" in which search engines use as a search basis, comes under SEO, it is also used for screen readers to read if the user has a disability such as blindness, the alternate text will say what the image is of.
Loading time - The amount of time it takes to load a webpage is an important aspect to look at, generally for me if a site takes to long to load I'm not going to wait for it, i will be gone looking at something else even if the site did/does have valuable information. So compression of multimedia content is vital, comes under content. If were to be using content that required plugins i would also need to take the time it takes to load that in account.
Text - For body text it needs to be able to read easily, having red text on a green background just won't work and will turn users away. Italics, bold and underlined text should only be used a little bit as it distracts from the flow of the text, if they were used in a piece of text i would think that the text could be better written. Headers and titles should again be clear and easy to read as well as standing out when scanning over the site quickly. The short paragraph or tagline should be short and punchy and give you a good idea to what the site is about.
Layout - The position of the elements I use will be an important to design but most important to the user, I need to have the navigation in a place where it is usable and instantly noticeable when the user visits the page; I do not want them searching for it, it should be there where they need it weather it be at the top or on the left, It needs to be clear and structured accordingly to the content as well as not interfering with other content. I really have it when websites use drop down menus that keep having more options to click on, I have also noticed that the hover over drop down menus rarely work on iOS devices let alone any others. I also want to keep the navigation the same throughout and in the same place otherwise it will confuse the users. Every element on the page must have a reason why I have used it:
Why its there? Whats its purpose? Does it fulfil that purpose? Does it work with other elements on the page?
Size - For users to stay on the site I need to make the first page and the first elements they see very interesting and eye catching so within the 960x600 pixels I need to have content that is engaging and that also loads quickly so that the user isn't waiting around as otherwise they will just leave. Also the size of text images buttons etc all need to suit
Colour - Going back to monitors I also need to choose colours that are suited to monitors so that they don't display to brightly next to text so that it makes it unreadable, I also need too make sure the text is legible on the background colour.
Navigation - The navigation will be consistent throughout, it needs to be clear, have the right amount of buttons that do not clutter the page (max 7), I will also need a simple navigation at the bottom of the page as well as quick links to contact details etc.
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