What Are the Important Elements of a Web Page?
The Internet is one of the main ways to market a product or inform the public about your organization. Designing a Web page gives you complete freedom to include any information and elements you want on your site. To ensure you design an effective Web page, keep a few important elements in mind.
Other People Are Reading
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Obvious Purpose
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The first thing a user will look for on your site is its purpose. The reason for your website needs to be obvious; otherwise users are not going to waste time looking around to figure it out. Present your purpose in a way that keeps the audience's attention. After looking at your first page, visitors should want to know more about your product, message or organization. You can convey your message through text, images and animation. Decide on a simple theme and carry those colors and layouts through each page of your site.
Appearance
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Your Web page should have an appealing and professional appearance. The words and images on your site are a reflection of your product or organization. Stick to two or three main colors throughout your Web page. Keep the text easy-to-read, simple fonts between sizes 10 pt. and 12 pt. You can use graphics, but don't use more than three or four images per page. Too many images will detract from the rest of your page. Keep your page simple and uncluttered; you don't have to fill up every empty space. Double check your content and make sure there are no grammatical or spelling errors.
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Navigation
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Easy navigation is another important element of a Web page. Visitorss should be able to figure out where they want to go and how to get there without trouble. Keep the homepage short, so that users don't have to scroll down for more information and provide a link on other pages that leads back to the homepage. Place your menus, 10 or less, at the top or sides of your site. If you have a section on technical support or frequently asked questions, the links to this area should be obvious for quick access. If users need to contact you, your company's contact information should also be easily accessible. Make sure there are no broken links, which will just send a user to another site.
Technical Aspects
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Keep your Web page simple enough that it loads in 20 seconds or less with a dial-up connection. If pages take longer, consider removing elements you may not need, such as graphics and animation. Test your site in the three main browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari, to make sure it is compatible with the different browsers. Think about the average screen resolution, 1024 x 768 pixels. Make sure your site looks good at this setting, but will also work nicely on other screens.
Interactive
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Make your website interactive.This keeps users engaged and coming back to your Web page. If you are presenting some sort of financial information, include a calculator with tables so users can test out different numbers. If you have an educational web page, include some sample activities so users can test your product. Anything that catches a user's attention helps you.
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References
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