It is known that website redesign is a very expensive pleasure. At the same time, design is not only about the external attractiveness of the site, but also about its effectiveness. Sometimes site owners are forced to order a site redesign service. In order not to find yourself in such a situation, or at least reduce the likelihood of its occurrence, it is better to choose the most suitable appearance of the resource in advance.
If you have chosen a template for your site, you can already answer the question about what kind of sites there are. You may have noticed that there are typical site design variations (depending on its content). Let's say a blog site is usually one or two columns, a place for a tag cloud, bright and expressive elements that evoke associations with personality, and news sites have a block structure (multiple columns, strict "newspaper" design).
Obviously, it is impossible to make a good blog on a news site template, and an online store on a portal template. Therefore, it is very important to clearly define the objectives of the site and ensure that the design of the site is fully consistent with them.
So what are websites?
Promo site - one page with company contacts.
Corporate website - a functional and informative website with many pages and subsections, the purpose of which is to attract customers, partners. Often - to provide intra-corporate communication. Web design of business card sites or corporate sites is extremely important. Each element contributes to the impression of the company. It is here that it is possible to use original flash elements, non-trivial color schemes.
Internet-magazine is a site designed to get acquainted with information. A lot of pages with interesting materials, ad blocks, possibly the presence of interactive modules (for example, adding comments to articles). Decorative elements should not interfere with the perception of information, but at the same time, they can be quite active and noticeable.
Blog - the basis of a blog site is a person. The design should work on the image of this person. A custom solution is highly desirable. As a rule, such sites do not have many subsections and have a simple structure, but are characterized by the presence of thoughtful comment fields.
Portal - has a large set of functions. The portal contains both news materials and useful articles, has a forum or personal pages of participants. The portal is aimed at both informing visitors and their communication. It has many blocks, subsections, perhaps three or four columns. A decorative solution can be anything (depending on the theme of the site), but at the same time, it should not interfere with the perception of information and communication.
News site. MainThe task of such sites is to conveniently submit a large amount of information. As a rule, their design depends on the subject of news (entertainment, political, beauty and fashion news), but, in any case, the web design of such sites should not be intrusive and interfere with the perception of textual information. If a white font on a black background is acceptable for image sites, then such frills are inappropriate on a news site and will cause irritation, even if it is computer game news.
Online store. Its task is to provide visitors with the convenience of viewing and purchasing goods. The design is concise and functional. As you can see, the task of an online store cannot always be combined with an image one. That is why many large companies have two sites: one - to promote their services, the other - to sell them. Less "promoted" companies simply organize sections "About us", "Articles", "Catalog".
What are the sites other than the above? One-page sites, which are designed for the powerful promotion of a single product, as a rule, an information product, social networks, promo sites. In fact, it is impossible to fully answer the question of what kind of sites there are. After all, you can set tasks that the world has not yet seen, and develop an original design for these tasks.
While there are indeed sites that do more than one of the above, this ingenious approach requires special preparation, a good budget, and true craftsmanship. Very many resources are not threatenedlarge audience. Simply because visitors do not understand where they actually got to. We emphasize once again: it is extremely important to clearly and simply define the task of the site!
So, the first step to success is to clearly describe the objectives of the site. This will already set the web designer in the right direction.
Failed web site design
Why learn from your own mistakes when you can learn from others? What are failing websites? Here are the most common mistakes.
1. Indistinctness. From the very first visit, the visitor should be clearly aware of where and for what he got (and where he can go further). It was to this thought that the information above should have led, but, despite the abundance of such advice on the Internet, sites are created daily that are not clear for what: blog design, news materials with photos are immediately posted, but in the header there are ridiculous curlicues that are only appropriate what's on the home page. The site must be solid and complete!
2. Excess. As a rule, designer delights are of interest to the designers themselves. You need to think several times before launching the original flash screensaver. Will it prevent users from reading articles, will it not annoy those whose Internet connection speed leaves much to be desired? Most visitors do not like too bright or gaudy design, they get annoyed when they see a font with curls, blue text on a brown background, etc. If you have doubts about your taste or budget, it is better to “underdesign” than"redesign".
3. Palisades of texts. It is intimidating and annoying in the same way as the abundance of decorative elements. The human eye perceives the repetition of monotonous graphic elements as aggression. Test blocks should not be too large, all articles should be well structured, information blocks should be reasonably interleaved with graphic ones.
So, the basic principles of successful web design: relevance, functionality, simplicity. By following these principles, even without much experience, you will be able to find a really good design for your site.
