Good Web Design - What is it?
There is unlimited possibilities when it comes to designing a
website. Flash, Database, content management, Client Login,
etc,etc. A question to ask yourself when deciding how to do your
website is:
How can I most effectively present my information to my
visitors
Of course there are several things to consider like budget but I
feel that when talking strictly design it is important to put
your visitors as first priority as they are the reason you are
building the website.
Flash - Flash I find is normally over done. It
can do wonders to a site if used right, but it can also make a
site look awful if not used correctly. To simply put it: If you
have multimedia content on your website consider flash, if you
don't: stay away from it altogether. Flash is more time
consuming to develop, and it can take away a lot of important
aspects from your sites like Search Engine Optimization.
Database - Adding a database back end to your site
can be very useful if you are going to be storing a lot of data,
or if you are going to be changing information often. If you are
just simply putting a page with your contacts online, I wouldn't
recommend using a database backend, again for the time that it
costs to develop and especially for the minor benefit that you
will see. On the other hand if you are storing all of your
products online and you need the ability to update/add/delete
products often I wouldn't recommend not using a database and
some type of content management. Content Management -
Content management is most likely used with a database back end
in which you will have a control panel that you can use to
'Manage Content'. Content that can be managed is anything and
everything. Sample uses for Content Management are:
Managing Products ' Add new and delete/edit
existing News/Journals ' If you want the ability
to constantly update your site with current news items or
journals Page Layout - Some more advanced Content
Management systems will all you to manage all aspects of your
site from the layout to the colors!
Again I stress the importance of putting your visitors first.
Although you might think it would be cool to have a flashy intro
and design, your visitors might find it annoying and distracting.
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Feel free to reprint this article as long as you keep the
following caption and author biography in tact with all
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About the author:
Ryan Fyfe is the owner and operator of Web
Design Which is a great web directory and information center
on Web Design and related topics like Flash animation and Search
Engine Optimization.
Author: Ryan Fyfe