The primary focus of your website is to give valuable contents to the end-user. User does not care whether your website background color is blue or green. What he really cares about is what do you have for him?
What is the use of a website which takes ages to load just because you have too many graphics in it? Is a hi-fi graphics design more important than a potential customer trying to visit your site? I am not saying that your site needs to be completely naked. What I am implying is just don’t overdo your site design.
You should, under all circumstances make sure that your website opens up pretty quickly even in a dial-up connection. How can we accomplish this? What should and shouldn’t be there? I am glad you asked.
Your site should have a good graphical header/logo. That’s how people would visually recognize your site/products. Have a simple navigation. Don’t overdo your navigation with useless javascripts. They’re well suited for graphics oriented websites, if yours is not, just don’t overdo it. Don’t add unnecessary graphics. Graphics that can be a part of your site might be Headers, Product Box Designs and others which are really necessary.
The navigation should be easy to follow, and always be available to your use no matter which part of your website he is surfing. Its better to have the at least the basic navigation in the bottom part of each page, so that once the visitor finishes reading the information on one of your pages, he can directly jump to the required destination.
Make sure that each part of your website blends in with all other elements of your site. Have a disgusting looking title made up in some graphics program and placing it in a random area of your site is just not good. When you design your site, select a central color scheme for your site and make sure each and every element matches up with it.
Having a blue theme and a red colored logo might just not blend. So please be careful. Take a look at other sites. If there is any color you like, you can just note it down by viewing the source code of the website HTML. This is one good and easy way of determining a color scheme and a good design.
