Which web design is the best?

“Which web design is the best?” If you have already asked yourself this question, you are most likely to have encountered the problem of choice of a suitable web design for your website. Before answering this question let us analyze what the notion of the best web design implies. What are the main criteria of its detection?

While speaking of the best web design, a lot of people mean its “beauty”, and the number of images and fancy animation are the measure of this “beauty”. This point of view may be true only in one case – when we speak about a personal website of a specialist in the area of such special effects. Whereas abundant blinking, flicker or animals running two and fro are, let us say, not quite appropriate for a serious website which is devoted to serious business. Therefore the first rule of the best web design is: never go too far with graphics and animation.

Easiness-to-use and intelligibility of web design have been and still remain important criteria of a good web design. Therefore during development of a website one should not forget about the users who should not writhe in hysterics trying to find necessary information on your website for a solid hour. Web developers even use such notions as usability and usability testing. Usability means ability (easiness, convenience) of use. Correspondingly, usability testing is testing of this easiness and convenience. Usability testing is usually carried out by specially invited people. Their task is to analyze the convenience and simplicity of the website interface. Thus the second rule of good web design is: take into account the convenience of your web design for the users

Speaking about usability, it is worth mentioning the display of your website on the monitors of your visitors. As it is generally known, there are two types of displays:

• old monitors with the aspect ratio which equals 4:3 and 17'' or 19'' display diagonal;
• new wide-screen displays (the aspect ratio may equal 16:9, 16:10) and display diagonals which equal 19'' or more.

• if information is more important that its representation on the display of the user, if the amount of this information is considerably big – you had better choose fluid web design;
• if the amount of information on each page is limited and it is very important that the user sees it exactly as the developers have planned – fixed web design is the best choice.

You can also combine these designs, i.e. some of elements will be fixed, and some will be “stretchable”.

You should also remember that haste is not the best assistant during creation of the best web design. Wise men say: “Haste makes waste”. It is better to spend more time and improve your website than to eat your heart out later when the drawbacks start appearing everywhere. That is why the next rule of the best web design is: never make hasty decisions.

You should not also forget about the financial aspect of the issue! If you like some website very much it might also cost very much. It is generally accepted that a website (and any other thing) should be as expensive as its owner can afford himself. Thus it is reasonable to weight your desires and you financial opportunities – to spend the last money from the company's budget just to make a splash is not the best decision. So we can formulate the fifth rule: your website should correspond to your financial resources.

If you need a site to advertise your goods and services, concentrate the users' attention on these products. For this purpose it is not necessary at all to accompany each product with a blinking banner with a lot of special effects. It is much more useful to provide important information about your goods and services than to “shout” “THIS PRODUCT IS THE BEST!” three times. Hence the next rule: use only facts instead of empty declarations.

Finally, you should remember: you create a website not only for yourself, but first of all for the visitors. For instance, if you have decided to create an educational portal for the teachers of English, it will hardly be popular among the target audience if it is full of slang expressions and sexy girls. Take into account the peculiarities of your target visitors – it will help to prevent misunderstanding.

Let us sum everything up. Despite all these rules the definition of the best web design is a very subjective notion. There is no universal recipe – you should perceive everything using trial-and-error-method.

Only hard work will help to create web design which is really the best!

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web design, best web design, web design choice, website design, usability, website testing, convenient web design, fluid design, fixed design