Creating an effective website

Web site design and organization is based on the goals you have for your site and the needs of your audience. Doing some planning beforehand will help you create a Web site that is well-organized and easy to use. You also need to consider what resources are available to build your site, and how the site will be maintained.
Clarify your goals

Consider the following questions when thinking about the goals for your Web site.

Does your website have a purpose? What is it?
Try to express the purpose of your site in a sentence or short paragraph. If you are clear about the purpose of your Web site, it will also be clear for your visitors. By defining the purpose of your site you also ensure that the Web is the right medium to achieve your goals.

Who are you trying to reach with your site?
Most often a website is built on those in charge of creating it. It is important for the success of your website to be sure you have an understanding of the audience who will be looking at it. Keep the typical user in mind as you create and organize your site.

what are the objectives of your website?
Defining specific objectives for your Web site will help keep you on target. As you organize and create the site, this will allow you to design a web site that works.

How often will your site be updated and by whom?
If your site includes news or information that periodically changes you must be prepared to update it regularly. Consider the cost, in both money and time, involved in keeping the site current.

Who will design and maintain the site?
If you plan to build and create the site yourself, you might want to start with easy-to-use software and modest technical goals. If you have technical and design assistance available to you, your goals for the site might be more ambitious.

Who will be hosting your website?
In order for your website to be viewed on the internet, you need to provide a home for your website. In order for you to have all your accounts in one location, Living Words Web Design offers hosting services.

How will you structure your site?
A well-organized Web site is one that makes it easy and intuitive for visitors to find what they want. . The most common organization schemes are hierarchical, linear, web, and grid.

How will you "chunk" the content on your site?
Take an inventory of the content you want to include on your Web site. Think about how to best organize the content for reading on the Web. Most web users like short "chunks" of content that can be easily read on the screen, and scanned for important information. Try to keep your pages short, and use headings and bulleted list to help your readers find important information.

How will you organize the "backend" of your Web site?
In addition to organizing the information on your site, you need to think about how you will organize the files and folders that comprise the site. Most commonly photos and graphics are placed in a folder called "Images". An easy-to-use file structure will help a great deal while maintaining and updating your Web site.

Design a consistent layout for your pages
Your users will have an easier time finding information in your site if the pages have a consistent layout .Sketch out a few designs on paper then choose one or two, and then refine them. Remember that an effective page layout is both interesting and useful.

Your home page is important.
The landing page to your site, or home page, is very important. It lets your users know the purpose of your site, draws the user, explains how the site is organized, and helps her find the information they need as quickly as possible.

Remember the 'three click' rule.
Studies show users start to get lost and lose patience if they fail to find the information they need after three clicks - following three hyperlinks - from the home page. Users that cannot find what they need will be less likely to visit your site again.

Create a site map of your site.
Include a site map as either a graphical representation or as a list of links clustered into topics. It is probably better to organize the information logically rather than the way the pages are organized on the site. It is also good to have a site index, listing all the topics of the site in alphabetical order, with duplicate entries for alternate wordings.

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