Clear the Cobwebs of your web site with tips from an expert

A great business Web site is the sum of its successful parts say the creative minds at Devlin Applied Design of Toronto, a national leader in Canada’s new media industry.

“An integrated approach is key,” says Catherine Devlin, president and CEO, about the principles of building a Web site that really works. “The site should reflect your company’s business cards, your ad in the Yellow Pages, the sign on your truck or front door.”

Based in Toronto with a sales office in New York, Devlin’s list of clients including, IMAX, M.A.C. Cosmetics, Group Telecom and FedEx, have enhanced their profiles and bottom lines with a dynamic Internet presence.

After seven years in the business, Devlin was named Company of the Year at the 2002 Canadian New Media Awards.

“The first thing we do is sit down and research who a client’s Web site users are, or who they will be, what makes the client’s business special, and the nature of the industry they’re in. That tells us where we should be looking to begin designing a site,” says Devlin’s art direction Nicole Dixon, fondly designated as the company’s “design doyenne.”

Knowing your audience is critical to decide if your business site should be strictly information-based or can offer splash pages filled with lively, busy graphics.

A good Web site also incorporates a company’s brand standard – its logo, corporate colours and text font styles. “We always examine a client’s marketing approach because we want to make their site as similar in its message as possible,” she says.

“A few years ago, splash pages were really popular but they were mostly graphics and not integrated with the heart of the Web site. Some audiences didn’t want to go through fluffy flash introductions to get the information they needed and so their attention was lost,” says Dixon.

Colour can make or break your site. “If it’s an entertainment Web site, then maybe a bright green is a good background colour,” says Dixon. Currently, designers work with the Web-safe palette of 216 RGB (red, green, blue) colours common to most computer monitors and platforms.

“But if it’s an information-based site, that colour is too much. You need to consider legibility and the user’s ability to look at the site for a lengthy period of time.” Printable text pages, she adds, are best mounted on a white background for maximum contrast.

As well, font styles and sizes are important. The most legible HTML sites are posted in 11-point typefaces, 10-point typefaces if the pages are full of information.

More contemporary san serif fonts such as Verdana and Aerial are popular. But Dixon says she expects to see the traditional serifs, such as Times, come back because “designers have stayed away from them for so long that they’re starting to look interesting again.”

The architecture or flow of a site is its lifeline. “Many times, in the initial stages, we sit down with pen and paper and brainstorm. We look at everything a client wants to put on their site and try to group the related information. That’s how we create a primary navigation of the site,” says Dixon

“The first page is usually the home page. Some sites need log-in pages for members. Some sites need landing pages that offer users both a French and English version.

“If it’s an e-commerce site, then a user should go from the home page straight into one of the product pages. If the company is not selling products, then it might be an About Us page. In general, from the top-level navigation pages you’ll have broad information that gets more specific as you move down into the architecture.

“The interesting thing about Web design is that it’s not like reading a book,” Dixon adds. “You don’t have to follow one page to the next. Users should be able to skip and jump around. That’s what makes having a good architecture so crucial to its success.”

Be sure to design a navigational site that is easy to understand and clearly marks where users are located. “Your audience should not feel stranded. They need to know at all times where they are and how to get back.”

Obvious buttons such as Enter, Click Here or Go are essential. And if you design a task that has to be done, make it logical and straightforward. “You don’t want people to get part way through buying your product and then get lost. They will not complete the purchase is they get confused,” Dixon says.

Techniques, such as flashing icons and sound, can be used in fun ways to engage users and draw them back to your business Web site. Dixon says that Devlin built the Space Station site for client IMAX using graphics and sound to replicate the highly sensory experience of a movie.

“But a good Web site is not just about design. Many sites use functionality to keep their users coming back,” says Dixon. “They make the experience more interactive by allowing the audience to enter information and get something back, such as calculators to estimate rates or percentages, or metric conversion function.”

Knowing how much traffic your site will get can be gauged with a survey on an existing site or initial research with mail or phone queries. “That can be really good because you’ll know if they’re interested and, in a way, you’ll encourage their interest in your site,” she says.

Feedback on the site throughout its development will save time and mistakes. “All along the process we like to take a step back and have a fresh pair of eyes go through what we’re doing to ensure the design makes sense,” Dixon says.

“At the very end of the whole process we’ll also incorporate a final, formal test with different levels of users to make sure everything is done right, that it makes sense, and that there are no dead links. We also test our designs on all browsers because there are subtle differences between them,” she adds.

Dixon notes that the best Web sites show off a company’s best features. “I think small businesses really need to find out what their company is all about, and how they want to differentiate themselves from the competition. When you have a good sense of what you do best and what you need to promote or convey to your customers, that translates into the rest of your Web design process,” she says.