MySaga Web Services

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The first question to ask yourself when designing your website is, "Who will be looking at my website, and why?" Two main reasons people visit websites are: The first group is easy to design a website for - simply include all the information about your business or organization that people may want to know (consider the common types of questions you get over the phone): For the second group, you'll want to provide more detailed information about who you are, and what you offer. Let's say you have a store with needlepoint supplies, and want a website. Some of your website visitors will already be familiar with needlepointing, and simply want information on your store hours and what you carry. However, other website visitors may be new to needlepointing, and will benefit from more basic information as well: what is needlepointing; what types of supplies are needed and why; why are there so many different types of needles, fabrics and threads, and how do you know which to use; what are some good beginner projects; and what makes your store different or special (personalized service, many years of experience, beginner and advanced classes, ....). Whether your website is large or small, it should - above all else - be clear and logical. Present your information in such a way that people will easily be able to find the information they're looking for. I once spent about 15 minutes at a the website of a major (national) company trying to find their address (to send them a letter). I believe I finally found it buried in some obscure subsection under 'investor information'. Good web design would have ensured that such basic information was much easier to find. Your main page should have links to all the basic website sections, and every page should (at a minimum) have a link back to the main page. How many basic website sections should you have? The less the better, as long as they're descriptive enough. From four to ten is a good general guideline. For extensive websites, a 'site map' page is a good idea, containing a link (and sometimes a brief description) for every page on the site. Animated GIFs (moving images), scrolling text, counters, and other effects are fun, but don't use so many that they take attention away from the information you want your visitors to see. A bunch of bubbles (or anything else) following your mouse pointer around is cute, sure - for the first couple of minutes. After that, it gets really annoying! Music and sound effects are special effects that belong in their own category. Some things to remember about music are: many computers in public computer areas (such as libraries) have sound disabled and will be unable to hear your theme song or wolf howl; and some visitors are checking out your website from work, where a sudden blast of music - announcing to the entire office that they are checking out Internet websites - may not be all that welcome. Some websites use sound to good effect - for instance, clicking on various birds to find out what their calls sound like. For most websites, however, music seems to be used 'because they can'.

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