The appearance and location of standard page elements, like navigation, should be consistent across your entire site. Having a main menu that appears in a different position from page to page will 2. Do be conventional.<\/strong><\/p>\n Follow general conventions for navigation and layout \u2013 menus at the top or on the left; using metaphors like tabs for menus. Eyetracking studies show that website users often scan a web page using two horizontal sweeps and one vertical one. You can’t go wrong if you stick with the F-shape<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n 3. Don\u2019t require a magnifying glass.<\/strong><\/p>\n Avoid tiny font sizes for main text content \u2013 consider using a CSS stylesheet to make the base font size 100%. By doing this you’ll\u00a0 respect the visitor’s preferences for default font size. Avoid very small fonts except for copyright information and other ‘fine print.’<\/p>\n 4. Do make it legible.<\/strong><\/p>\n Some font faces are easier to read than others. Sans serif font faces are much more legible at smaller sizes and should be used for large blocks of text. Save the serif font faces, like Times or Georgia, for headlines and other larger text elements.<\/p>\n 5. Don’t be afraid of white space.<\/strong><\/p>\n Blocks of open space make it easy to separate different areas and content types on your site and reduce the appearance of a cluttered page. Let your content breathe.<\/p>\n 6. Do break up content.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Use elements like bulleted lists, blockquotes, and headlines to break up large content blocks into more manageable chunks. Visitors scan, they don’t necessarily read \u2013 make it easier to digest the gist of the content quickly.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n 7. Do be flexible.<\/strong><\/p>\n Different web browsers display content differently \u2013 it’s a fact of life on the Internet. Older browsers are particularly notorious for wreaking havoc with a design. Make sure your new design is tested across different browsers to make sure that variations are acceptable and minimized where possible.<\/p>\n 8. Do keep images under control.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Avoid large, complex background images \u2013 the bigger the image, the more it can slow down loading of your page. Also, if you need an image in your page and simply upload a huge photo and rely on the web browser scale it down for you, the file size is still huge and the browser has to do extra work to resize your image on the fly. When you need an image that’s 300px by 200px, reduce it to that size before<\/em> you load it onto your site.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n 9.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let distractions be the focus of your site.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Splash pages, unnecessary animation, and music, which might catch your visitor’s attention momentarily, can quickly become irritations.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n 10. Do remember this: The user always comes first.<\/strong><\/p>\n Avoid putting roadblocks in front of your visitors. Make it as easy as possible for them to accomplish their goals \u2013 and make it very clear what it is they can and should be doing on your site. Don’t stand in their way by making your site hard to get around in, difficult to read, or burying information so deeply that a visitor would need a shovel to find it. If they stick around that long.<\/p>\n ———-<\/p>\n Your visitors are much more likely to spend time on a site that’s legible, pleasant to look at and well-organized. And that can translate into more opportunities to make your business shine.<\/p>\n – Debbie<\/em><\/p>\n![\"web](\"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/web-design-tips.jpg\" "\\"web")
<\/a> only confuse your visitors!<\/p>\n