Executionists - We Get Web Done

By Jessie Jo Blalock

In an age where organic products, green lifestyles, and holistic practices prevail, websites are leaning towards a more modern, Zen approach by drawing upon minimalist design. As far as the success of website goes, it is no secret that “content is king,” however, in 2010 it is about keeping the superficial layer of the website less…. superficial. Akin to Feng Shui , everything in web design should serve a purpose, placement is key, and the absence of clutter is essential. A website should feel natural while being aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly. The last thing a website’s design should create is a disruption to a user’s online chi.

Minimalist web design goes hand-in-hand with the changing tone of media communications in general. As society becomes more Internet savvy and media literate, they are less likely to surrender to noisy, manipulative marketing schemes. Like the persistent salesman in the room who is trying too hard to sell everyone everything, people are avoiding cluttered websites for ones that are less intrusive. Websites are beginning to remove all the useless bells and whistles and strip down to their bare essentials. Now more than ever, the focus of modern web design is on clear, effective communication and content. Though a trendy minimalist design might be just as calculating as it’s predecessors, it produces a more tranquil and raw experience for users while being more intuitive and efficient.

Trends

The notion that history repeats is universal. In the realm of design, to repeat history is to pay homage to its predecessors. Repetition emerges as reinvention and reinvention transpires to become a trend. “Design trends do not exist to be followed. They exist to be broken, reshaped and abolished by the spirit of creativity rippling through the design community” explains Vitaly Freidman, Editor in Chief, Smashing Magazine. The following are design “trends” have been manipulated to sustain the changing web atmosphere.

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By James Copper

There are millions of websites on the internet all competing for the attention of users. This makes the design of your website very important if you want to stand any chance of surviving. You can spend huge sums of money promoting your site, but if the website design isn’t up to scratch then it’s not going to make any difference.

Before you look at SEO or other promotional campaigns, you should first experiment with the design of your site. All good web designers should already be aware about the importance of good website design.

Simple

Sometimes simple is better and this is true on the internet. It is possible to create stunning and very advanced sites. These are time consuming and can also take a long time to load. It is almost always best to stick to simple website designs.

Be careful if you are ever using pop-up windows as most people have pop-up blockers. These can also cause irritation if used too often. Simple websites will load quicker and will be indexed by search engines much quicker.

Titles

Every single page of your site should be valuable. All of these should have a clear aim in mind and should have a title. The title must contain your keywords as this will help to get your site indexed in search engines.

You can find out about keywords which you might like to use by using keyword tools like the one offered by Google.

Images

Using images on your website is great and will look fantastic. However you need to be careful not to overdo it. If you include too many images on your site then this can slow it down and make it take much longer to load.

The same goes for flash. Flash may make sites look professional to some people but it also makes it slow down. It also means that many people will have to download additional software to view your site. If you must use flash then keep it to an absolute minimum, not that many people appreciate flash websites anyway.

The main problem with flash and images is that search engine robots cannot see what they are. They will only index a site based on the text content. Set the alternate labels to try and reduce the impact this has on your site.

Meta Tags

When you’re designing websites it might be tempting to ignore meta tags and other information. However the meta description is used by search engines and should be able to encourage surfers to visit your site. Make sure you create a unique meta description and put the right one on each page.

Text Links

You must be very careful to create text links to different pages of your site even if you have another form of navigation. These are normally displayed at the bottom of each page. This will make it much easier for web spiders and robots to crawl your website and index it in search engines.

You need to be able to consider SEO at the time you design your website. If you design your website correctly then you should be able to make it look appealing to search engines.

James Copper is a writer for http://www.thebigagency.co.uk, and can be reached at info@thebigagency.co.uk