5 Vital Web Design Elements

Posted in Web Design on October 8, 2009 by seoblogger

There are some elements of web design that could be considered vital web design. These are the elements that your web pages actually need. More to the point, they are the elements that will give your web pages the most help from the perspective of the user, as well as from the perspective of the search engines. Vital web design should therefore be considered the core elements, and everything else just useful or pleasing.

1. Fast page loading should be high on the list of “must have” elements. If a page takes longer than 10 seconds to load under normal circumstances, it is taking too long. People will click away rather than wait patiently for the page to load. Perhaps you have encountered pages where the browser is obviously working hard to load a bunch of elements and adverts. It’s intensely irritating. Vital web design takes this into consideration and avoids making the user wait any longer than necessary.
2. Clear, easy to use and easy to understand navigation should also be high on the list of vital web design elements. The visitor to your site should be able to see virtually instantly how to get from one page to another, or from one section to another. If he or she has to think about it for more than five seconds, they will most likely click away and be lost forever.
3. Consider screen resolutions when you are designing a web site. There seems to be a tendency these days to think that as most people use high screen resolutions it’s safe to produce web pages catered only for that. It usually is not. This can often be overcome by designing the page as a percentage value rather than as an absolute pixel value. In that way the page will look essentially the same on any screen resolution.
4. You should always check for cross browser compatibility. Internet Explorer is still (at the time of writing) the most popular browser worldwide with Firefox coming in second. After that there are the Opera and Chrome browsers to consider, as well as a few others. One way to check for compatibility is to install all of the popular browsers on your computer and load your web pages in them all, adjusting as necessary. However, there is software that will do this as well as a few dedicated web sites.
5. One of the most vital web design elements on any page is readability. Make sure that the fonts you use, as well as the foreground and background colours, have enough natural contrast to make the page easy to read. Black on white may be boring, but it is still the most readable combination for font colour and background colour. The Verdana font was designed specifically for the web to make reading from a screen easier. It is therefore one vital web design element that could make all the difference.

About seoblogger:

Our SEO blogger is an expert in Web Marketing, Usability and Interface Design. He has been a vital part of The Blue Cube Communications since 2003. As the West Midlands fastest growing web marketing agency, we always strive to maximise return on investment for our customers.