We tend to get specialist graphic designers to invent the style
and form of the sites we build - these people have been doing this for
years in print, in real-world stores, and in any medium where
businesses need to set a keynote for their customers.
Style
Some discount stores use raw wooden pallets instead of shelves for
their goods - it helps to reinforce the idea that they won''t
waste money on frills, they''d rather pass on the saving to you.
Law firms and brokers will clearly try to establish a different
style for their visitors - integrity, capability, exclusivity.
Expressing the style of your business is done in several ways. In
order of increasing subtlety are:
- Graphics - the background or wallpaper, the captions and menus
and the little animated postboxes indicating email links (to be avoided
along with ''under construction'' signs). Talk to Dmitry
about this, or get expert help locally.
- Layout - how the bits of information, navigation bars, menus and
logos fit together on the screen. Again, an experienced designer can do in a day
what you and your resident HTMLer will never achieve in a month.
- Site Design - the kind of facilities you place on your site, and what you
decide to call them in menus. Looking at webreference.com''s
front page tells
you that this place is full of information, and a lot of it is linked to from one
page. Other sites will hide the information in hierarchies while trying to get it
to you in some way.
- Focus - how well-suited are the aims and activities on your site to
the kind of person you want to visit and the kind of business you want to do with
her? Avoid anything which does not help you or your customer in this process.
- Language - be careful to employ the right kind of language in your
content pages and instructions. The tone and demeanor of your words are as visible
to competent readers as tone of voice and body language in the real world.
Looking after all these elements is a tricky process that often leads to
several generations of site before style and content approach the level of your
real-world (or competitors'') operations. Again, diligence, care and patience
are called for.
As important as style, and useless without it:
function.
IE 7
Firefox 2.0
