New Jersey Entrepreneur

Whether you've rolled up your sleeves and tackled your own web design or you have hired someone else to design your website, there are a number of issues you need to be aware of when it comes to website design. Visitor usability, design basics and technical issues all play an important part in creating a web design that is pleasing and functional to your site visitors.

Before I get into the specific design elements that you need to pay attention to, I want to spend a moment discussing my design philosophy that I relate to my own clients. Simply put, website design should not get in the way of the content. For the vast majority of New Jersey entrepreneurs - and I know there are some exceptions - people will be coming to your website for either information about your company or to perform a specific task such as purchasing a product or registering for an upcoming event. They are not coming to your site to be entertained with unnecessary Flash animations or background music and sound effects. Good website design makes it as easy as possible for your site visitors to do what they came to your site for in the first place.

The checklist I've complied below is not meant to be an exhaustive review of all design issues, but rather a starting point for you to use in reviewing your own design work or work completed by others.

Usability Issues

1. Intro splash Flash animations. I've written about this issue in the past and it is one of my pet peeves when it comes to website design.
2. Consistent navigation on every page. Every page should have the same menu items in the same place. Don't make your visitors guess how to browse through your site.
3. Make it easy to find your content. If your site is large, then a site map page and a search box are probably needed.
4. Your company contact information should be visible and available on every page. You never know when a visitor is going to have a question or just needs to get in contact with you.
5. Avoid unnecessary background music and sound effects. Your visitor may be browsing your site in their office when they should be working!

Design Issues

1. Minimum screen width design should now be 1024 pixels. The number of monitors set to 800x600 pixels are very low. This increased size allows you to fit more information across each page.
2. Use light colored backgrounds and dark colored text. Take your cue from what newspapers and magazines have been doing for many years. This combination is the easiest to read.
3. Use no more than two fonts and no more than three or four colors throughout your website. Just because you can use multiple fonts and colors, doesn't mean you should.
4. Text markup should be consistent. By markup I mean the styling of the page headers, subheadings, links, and the like. Don't confuse the visitor with multiple styles.
5. Text should be well spaced and in narrow columns. Text is difficult to read on a monitor to begin with. Again take your cues from newspapers and magazines, they use narrow columns with lots of spacing.

Technical Issues

1. Test your website in multiple browsers and platforms. Each browser interprets the standards just a little bit differently. Make sure that your visitors are seeing basically the same website regardless of the machine and browser they are using.
2. Avoid programming in frames. This is an issue for older sites, as frames are rarely used today. If your site is still coded using frames, then you are taking a big hit in your search engine optimization.
3. Each web page should have a unique title tag. One of the most important elements in search engine optimization is the title tag. Each page should have its own using your main keyword phrases.
4. Images should be properly optimized. Today it is very easy to take a digital image and upload it to your website via a content management system. The problem is that these images are usually extremely large. Images need to be reduced and optimized so that the file sizes are much smaller allowing them to be displayed on the page much faster and more sharply.
5. Websites should be hosted with a quality hosting provider. You may have the best design and excellent content, but if your hosting provider is not reliable, then you're out of business. Look for designers who use hosting companies that have excellent uptime and outstanding technical support.
6. The last point I'd like to make about website design is you have to design with your target audience in mind. If you are targeting the senior market, then you need to be more conservative with your design decisions compared to sites targeting teenagers.

I hope you found this checklist informative. Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions about these issues.

Mark Beck is Vice President and Partner of The Boulevard Group, a full service internet services company specializing in web design, web development and internet marketing. The Boulevard Group serves a broad customer base and provides services that include dynamic content management systems, database-driven ecommerce catalogs and shopping carts, and traditional brochure-style web sites. Mark formerly provided content to the Duct Tape Marketing blog where he covered topics relating to web design and internet marketing. He may be contacted at

Mark@theblvdgroup.com or by calling 908-876-3707.