The following items are from a checklist I use when I look at a website before I make recommendations on a redesign or general evaluation. It is just the basics with a description that hopefully will help beginners know what the pros do and look for. There are a lot more things that go into good design but these are the 101 class type to get you going.
1. Site Load-time Should Be Reasonable – I still like to see most sites come in under 500KB (100KB is even better). If a site takes forever to load, most people will just leave. Pretend you design websites for a living and just finished off your 6th energy drink in the last hour. If it takes more than about 10 seconds for the main content of the page to load you’re looking at the pretty birds out the window.
2. Styles & Colors Should be Consistent From Page to Page - I can’t say how many times I have been asked to look at a website and every page has a different look or colors. The style and color of the pages should carry through from one page to the next or your customers may think they have left your website. Professional design is consistent and pleasing to the eye and creates a positive user experience.
3. There Should Be Good Text-to-Background Contrast - Dark gray backgrounds and light gray text may seem hip and spiffy, however eyes and computer screens vary. If someone can’t read your website then why bother even having one (unless you enjoy on donating to your web designers World of War-craft fund). In this case Black-on-White is still best most of the time.
4. Font Size/Spacing Is Easy to Read – Size matters here too folks. If you use too small of a font you will start getting bills from your visitor’s optometrist. Also use of white space in web design creates a clean look and allows you to create focal points within the text to present your call to action (which is why you had a site built in the first place silly).
5. Homepage Shouldn’t Be Confusing - Many people disagree on exactly how much time you have to grab someone’s attention and have them fully understand what it is you do or how to figure out what they are looking at. I will throw out 10 seconds because its not only the number I see mentioned the most but I like the number 10. If it takes some head scratching by the mensa people to figure out your homepage then you need to rethink your strategy. I remind customers that you need to design for the least common denominator (who’d have thought I would use algebra terms after hating it so much) and most of the time that is people who know nothing about your company.
6. Clear Path to Contact Information - People need to know there is a human on the other side of the website if they need a question answered. It’s hard to do business if no one can contact you. One of the most common calls to action of a website is to get that phone call or email so you can close the deal and make some money.
7. Main Navigation Is Easily Identifiable - Most people who are interested in your product or service would like to visit more than one page of your website. If you use a navigation that is a mystery and takes some figuring out such as where, what and for crying out loud why they will stop being interested in you and probably even stop liking you on facebook.
8. Navigation Labels Should Be Clear - Don’t say Correspondence when Contact Us will do just fine. Some of us normal folks will think you are talking down to us and thems fightin words if you know what I mean. Your main navigation should be short, to the point, and easy for people who don’t know your industry jargon to understand.
9. Flash Should Not Be More Than A Design Element - News Flash: Flash is flashy b.s and never took off quite as well as macromedia and now adobe wishes it had. Yes you can make really fun looking websites and animation but in the end it’s not very user friendly and the search engines still can’t read it. If your website uses flash navigation or even worse the entire website is flash then you not only spent too much money on it but there is a larger percentage of the population than you think that cannot properly view your website.
10. Images should Have descriptive ALT Tags - Not only do sight-impaired visitors use ALT tags, but also search engines need them to understand your images. A lot of designers either forget to add alt tags or decide this is the place they are going to keyword stuff. If your pictures are complimentary to your content a description of the image that is a few words should help with both the visual impaired and with those precious lil search engines.
11. Site should have a Custom Not-found/404 Page - If a page on your site moved, was deleted or never existed then a white page with “404 Not Found” is shown. You should create a custom 404 page that links your viewers to your homepage or better yet has the full site navigation on it so they can go anywhere on your site they want instead of just leaving. Remind your web design professional that you would like this because a lot of the time it is overlooked due to time or budget constraints but if it is mentioned in the planning stages of the website it won’t be forgotten.
12. Company Logo Is Prominently Placed and links to homepage - Put your logo or brand where it’s easy to find. Typically that’s the first thing you see on a good website. As for linking it to the homepage it is something that has sort of always been done and people expect it. If they become lost, confused or disoriented while traveling on your information superhighway they will always have that lifeline which will make them feel happy and secure.
13. Number of Buttons/Links Is Reasonable - This is where information overload can come into play. Like in number 8 opinions vary but this time the magic number is around 7 and maximum of 2 layers deep for those of us privileged enough to have sub categories. Too many buttons probably means you have lost focus of what your website and are trying to be everything to every possible customer and it’s going to turn into a “as seen on TV” product and plain old not work (as expected).
14. Links should be Consistent & Easy to Identify – There are a few ways to identify a link on a website but moving your mouse over each word and clicking it to see if it is a link like it is some sort of scavenger hunt shouldn’t be one of them. Links should be either a different color, underlined, bolded, or all of the above. They should stand out from other text on the website so that they can be clicked otherwise why did you put it there in the first place.
15. Headings should be Clear & Descriptive - People dislike lots of text online so most don’t read; they skim the text for what they want. Use of headings lets people know what the following text is about helps keep it organized. Headings should be clear and descriptive which should help with the SEO of the website.
16. Critical Information Should be Above The Fold - The “fold” as I am told dates way back to things called newspapers. Most of these newspapers are folded in half and the important information is presented so that it shows up at first glimpse of the paper. Content can fall below the fold, but anything critical to understanding who you are or what you do (especially on the home-page) should fit on that first screen. Based on your target audience that fold may vary due to screen size but the norm for resolution is now 1024 x 768.
17. Emphasis (bold, etc.) Should Be Used Sparingly - If you bring attention to everything then you’re really bringing attention to nothing. If you find that a page has a lot of things you want to emphasize then maybe you should break some of the information off into an additional page so all your information isn’t treated like a middle child and it gets the credit it is due.
18. Main Copy Should Be Concise & Explanatory - Take a look at the text of the website and ask yourself if it can be said in less words and still be understandable. I have said it a few times in this article and I will say it again: people don’t care what you wrote down they want to read about what they need and not 5000 words on why you decided that your first career in Horticulture was doomed when you can just say I outgrew the pothead phase of my life so I decided to make the best widgets on earth instead.
19. Page Titles Should Be Explanatory - This is another place where keyword stuffing makes for a bad user experience. How many times have you bookmarked a web page and a month later gone nuts looking for that fennel cake recipe only to find it saved under the title cookware cooking dessert holiday treat cakes muffins brownies bagels free sex toys fennel thanksgiving fruit. Just name your pages what they are and you should be able to get in the main keywords you want anyway. The search engines now will ignore websites guilty of this and your delicious recipe won’t be found to begin with.
