Successful web site design takes much more than some pictures and words. So, unless you plan to rely on 'blind luck' it is imperative that your web site be designed properly. Overlooking even one or two key aspects of web site design can result in many missed opportunities.

We recently received the following email:

"In my brief encounters with web mastery, I've learned that site development does become quite personal as one attempts to present others' material in the best manner possible. I helped a friend by putting together his spy satellite/UFO web site which is completely different from my colorful California Tour.

Your sites show great versatility in design and comprise all the features users seek such as fast loading of pages, easy navigation and useful items.

You can quote me on that...Debbie Stock, Photojournalist"
debbie stock <destock@pacbell.net>

What is the specific purpose of the site?
This seemingly obvious aspect of web site design is ignored by countless businesses on the web. Business sites are significantly different from non-profit sites. Education sites are significantly different from art sites. The first decision (and the most important one) is the site's purpose. Is it to inform? To make sales? To entice? Are you trying to get a customer in the door or are you trying to make an immediate sale?

Who is your target?
Who are you trying to attract to your site? What are their interests? What is their educational background? What kind of disposable income do they have? If you can be specific in defining your target audience, it will be much simpler to design a site that will appeal to them. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to design a web site that appeals to everybody. Your web site, to be a success, must be designed for the people you want to reach. If you want to reach kids between the ages of 13 and 19, your site will look much different from that of a person who wants to reach retired people. If you want to sell real estate you must present your company much differently from that of a person who wants to sell food. All of these factors help determine things as simple as choice of color, size of text, type of graphics, etc. A mistake in this arena can be devastating.

User Interface
Often overlooked in web site design is the simple fact that it is other people, not you, for whom the site must work.

• Do the pages download quickly?
• Does your site contain the information visitors want and need?
• Is it easy for them to find that information.
• Is it easy for them to read that information?
• Is the information current and of interest?

Also often overlooked in web site design is the fact that there are millions of viewers connected to the Internet at different speeds, using different browsers on computers that are quite different in their capablities. Add in the facts that each user can customize their browser differently, and will probably have different plug-ins, and the web site appearance can differ dramatically from viewer to viewer. Too many people assume that if their web site looks good to them, it also looks good to everybody. That is not necessarily true. Each of our sites are checked in the 3 most popular browsers across the most common computer systems to ensure that the vast majority of viewers will see the best possible view.

Site Traffic
No matter good your web site looks, it will not do you much good if nobody sees it. Currently there are 800 million web sites on the Internet. Driving traffic to a site is a key component of web site design. Currently there are over 700 search engines serving the needs of web surfers. Understanding the ranking paradgims used by the 10 most popular engines is crucial to building traffic. WebWind Productions has an excellent track record in this arena. Our clients typically rank in the top 20 listings of the 10 major engines. This is not simply a product of submitting the sites. Each search engine ranks sites in their search criteria differently. Some engines use the META TAG keywords, some do not. Some engines use only the first 10 words in the keywords META TAG. Some engines give greater weight to the words in the page title, others to words in the META TAG description. Some rank based upon word usage in complete sentences. Some rank on other criteria. Designing a page that will rank a site high in several engines is a challenge.

Maintenance
Many of our clients require regular updates of their sites. Designing a web site that is flexible enough to quickly accomodate changes and the addition of new material is important in maintaining existing viewers. If updates cannot be accomplished quickly, the material on a web site begins to grow stale, and repeat visits by users drop off.