Grappling with Graphics for Business Sites
One of the trickier leaps to make in Web publishing is to jump from creating a personal home page to making a business site. Many of the layout and design choices that are acceptable or fun and friendly in a personal home page would be considered ugly or tacky when used in a business site.
The problem in most small business sites isn't the content — most business owners can write and organize information well enough to create a multi-page site that's useful. It's the look — graphics problems ranging from the design, to the layout, to the use of cheesy elements such as cartoonish animated graphics.
Yet creating a business site that looks good and works well is possible, even easy. Take a look at the following tips to plan the work, then to work the plan, then to get feedback until you arrive at the promised land: an attractive, easy-to-use business site.
Keep it simple
The more you plan to do with your business Web site, the longer it will take to do it. Most people have great ideas that might, with a lot of time and effort, become solid additions to a Web site. But what's needed first is a nice, attractive site with contact information and product descriptions. Don't plan to innovate in content or graphics until after you get your basic site up.
Consider using a template
Paid hosting sites, such as Network Solutions and Bigstep, have templates that make creating an attractive-looking site easier. So do many authoring programs. Consider using a template as a starting point to get a site up quickly, and then later creating your own custom look using what you've learned as part of an overall site upgrade.
Finish the home page last
Many business Web site projects start with the layout, design, and content of the home page — and, all too often, end there. Finish the home page last! It's the trickiest page to design and to do graphics for. Size up your needs for the home page at the beginning, but complete the inside pages first. Then the home page and navigation will be a snap.
Create a simple, attractive navigation bar
Here's where your graphics skills really come in — an attractive, clean, fast-loading navigation bar is what really makes the difference between a good and a bad small business site. Look at existing small business sites and see how they handle navigation. Then create a navigation bar of your own. Use colors that reflect your company logo or other company graphics you have or wish to create. Use simple foreground and background combinations with high contrast so that text is easy to read and loads quickly. You should also have a text-only version of your navigation at the bottom of your page for use by visually impaired users, search engines, and users who find themselves at the bottom of a long page and in need of quick access to navigation.
Limit fonts, colors, and design Elements
People commonly include three sites' worth of graphics and layout ideas in each site they create. Limit yourself — using a template for content pages and completing the home page last will help you keep things in control. Create a couple of good design elements and reuse them to create consistency, rather than proliferating cute little icons and graphics throughout your site. And keep font choices very simple — one font for body text, one for headlines, and perhaps one more (used sparingly) for emphasis.
Include photographs
Photographs are compelling. For a business site, photos can be used to establish credibility and to make products and people real to your site visitors. Definitely include high-quality photos of any products you sell. Consider including photos of the business owner, of the staff, and of the business storefront or offices.
Be careful with animation and multimedia
Animation is almost a no-no in business sites. Clever spinning buttons and animated characters look silly or unprofessional in most business sites. Multimedia can also bog down pages and create problems for users.
Yet motion can be fascinating and attractive. So use it correctly — consider creating a simple animated sequence that shows your product in use, or include a multimedia clip of the head of the company talking about what the company does. These elements can be easily skipped or avoided by those who don't want to use them, but will go far to make the site more interesting for everyone else. Putting an animation up as an introduction that users can't easily skip is a no-no.
Ask the tough questions
Ask friends and colleagues if your site has a professional appearance. People may be reluctant to tell you directly, "Your site is tacky-looking," so make sure that you ask your friendly critics specific questions. Ask them what their favorite small business site is and how yours compares to it. Or ask them to name a few things that they would change about your site if they could. Don't get upset by the feedback and keep making changes until the feedback you get is positive.
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