Ignorant is the person who resists learning. For the sake of
not being that type person, I’m going
to put together a list of 10 tips that best guide us less-than-tech-savvy-people
to putting together a somewhat competent personal website. If you feel I am
wrong in any way, interject, please. Let’s put our minds together and become …
less website ignorant.
Top 10 tips for managing a personal website:
- Check your spelling and grammar
- This may be surprising as my No. 1 pick in making a compelling website, but I guess in this one case I’ll let my journalism background shine a bit. I can’t stand when things are misspelled, or when improper grammar is used. It immediately steals any credibility away from the site itself, and it creates so much noise in my head that I fail to gather any actual information from what is being written. Mainly, though, I just find it lazy. (1)
- The website must be easy to navigate
- You might start to notice a trend, but I think using a website should be easy and carefree. If I have to work to read the material, or move around from page to page, you’ll lose me. Navigation being probably the most common way I exit websites. If it is difficult to find things, open pages or search for material, I’ll go someplace else. (1)
- Strive for simplicity
- This one piggybacks No. 2 in the sense that simple is in most times better. I’ve found over time that it is more difficult to bear something down to its raw materials rather than have every single avenue of information available. The process of using your mind is used when deciding what is more important, rather than vomiting everything you know on a page to show how intelligent or interesting your website is. (2)
- Use appropriate colors and fonts
- This is again harkening back to the visual, aesthetic appeal of the website, but often times this is what can turn someone away before ever seeing the actual functionality of the website. Same goes for the font. This is why certain fonts are seen more commonly than others. (3)
- Contact information
- Don’t you hate when you find a website and you might want to ask a question about their research or something they wrote, and you can’t find any damn contact information? Well, I do. I think it’s annoying that I can’t, oh, maybe just send an email to the website creator. (3)
- Utilizing white space
- This is something that goes hand-in-hand with designing for magazines. If you notice, magazines, unlike newspapers, are a bit more fluid in there design, and use negative space to draw the eye in to specific entry points. Such is the case for websites, and this is a reminder that not every inch of the page must be covered with information or links. White space is appealing on the eye when used correctly. (4)
- Using casual language
- I’m a simpleton. If I have no clue what you are talking about because you picked up a dictionary and started listing really, really long words, you’ll lose me. Sorry, I must not be that smart. (4)
- Using small images
- Images can be too big unless they are “optimized” (I took this from the source). If images are too big, the page will take forever to load, and we all know how long a person’s patience will last while watching a loading screen.
- Design for cross-browser functionality
- No point in having something unless it can be used by everyone, right? (5)
- Hide the counter
- I hate seeing how many people have viewed the page I’m on. Let’s be less tacky, people. (6)
Bibliography
1.
Kyrnin,
Jennifer. "Top 10 Tips to a Great Web Page." About.com
Web Design / HTML. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 June 2013. <http://webdesign.about.com/od/webdesignbasics/tp/aa112497.htm>.
2.
Friedman,
Vitaly. "Smashing Magazine." 10 Principles Of Effective Web Design. N.p., n.d. Web.
29 June 2013. <http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/31/10-principles-of-effective-web-design/>.
3.
"The
Website Designer." The Website Designer. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 June 2013. <http://www.thewebsitedesigner.net/blog/index.php/top-ten-tips-for-good-websites/>.
4.
"10
Tips to Create a More Usable Web." Webdesigner Depot RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 June 2013.
<http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/06/10-tips-to-create-a-more-usable-web/>.
5.
"WebDesignHelper.co.uk
- Design Theory 24 - Top Ten Web Design Tips."WebDesignHelper.co.uk - Design Theory 24 - Top Ten Web Design
Tips. N.p., n.d. Web.
29 June 2013. <http://www.webdesignhelper.co.uk/design_elements/design_theory/design_theory24/design_theory24.shtml>.
6.
"10
Most Important Web Design Tips." 10 Most Important Web Design Tips. N.p., n.d. Web. 29
June 2013. <http://www.freewebmasterhelp.com/articles/tips>.
