Introduction
When many people think about good website design they will think about what they see, the colour scheme, the shape, the images, flash moves etc.etc.
Whilst important this aspect, which I will call "form" is only one part of good website design and is in fact subordinate to what I will call function. Why subordinate? - because if the website does not display, cannot be found or cannot be properly seen by some sections of the population then the colour scheme etc. are not relevant.
Before we concern ourselves with these things we must ensure that the website works as it is intended to do, that is can be found, displayed and read by as close to 100% of the population as is possible.
Function
So we'll begin with function and function begins with the question...
Does it Work?
The first and single most important aspect of good website design is whether the pages load, along with how long they take to load.
Do all links to the website work?
Do all the links, including the loading of all images, within the website work?
and do all links from the website to external pages work?
Good website design dictates that when the domain is entered or the website otherwise accessed the pages will load quickly and repeatably.
Accessibility
When many people think about accessibility they think about whether people with a range of disabilities can properly view the website and indeed this is vitally important for many reasons. Firstly there can be legal requirements but more importantly if your website is not accessible to a significant part of the population then you are deliberately cutting down on your potential customers. Why would anyone do this?
Accessibility, though, is more than this, it begins with the section above. The cornerstone of accessibility is that the website works properly.
In addition the website should indeed be structured so that it can be read by all people, including those who use tools such as page readers or who need to be able to re-size the text of the site. When you consider that the search engine crawlers see the website in much the same way as a page reader used by a blind person then it becomes even more important that the site is properly readable by such readers.
Accessibility is a subject in its own right and not one I want to cover in detail here. We can usefully look at a few examples of good accessible website design though.
1. Images
Neither page readers nor search engine crawlers can see images or flash movies. The alternative text or Alt Text associated with an image or movie are therefore of vital importance in describing what the picture is trying to relate.
Good website design includes well written descriptive Alt Text for all images.
2. Headings
If one considers form alone then it would be sufficient for titles, subtitles etc. to be emphasised by making them slightly larger or bold or both.
But the code behind websites is capable of much more than this and a good, well designed and constructed, web page will use header tags <H1>, <H2> etc. to both emphasise the subdivisions and let the page readers and search engine crawlers know that a piece of text has special emphasis and describes the purpose or meaning of the text which follows.
3. Tables
Tables all too often get a bad press in website design circles. For many years tables were used widely in trying to create a website structure. Some very fancy website designs use tables extensively in organising the various parts of the website.
Why is this a bad thing?
Anyone using a page reader will be told that a table has been encountered and will then be expecting to be told what is in the table. If the table has only been used to structure the website then there will be no information in the table. In reality this is not something that will stop the website being accessible but will become very irritating.
This does not mean, though, that tables should never be used in a website, They are entirely appropriate where content is gathered together in a tabular form. Indeed tables in this context give you the opportunity to present both the page reader user and also the search engine crawler with useful information about your website and its content.
Navigation
One of the things people often say about a good website is that it was easy to use and about a bad site they will they it was hard to use. In my experience what they mean is that it was hard or easy to navigate through the site.
Navigation is achieved in a number of ways.
1. Menus
These should be clearly visible and should contain useful headings to each navigation button.
2. Other links
Again these should be clearly labelled and hopefully the site CSS will clearly show where a piece of text or picture is a link to somewhere else. The use of pictures can be particularly poorly done in this respect - it may be obvious to a fully sighted user that a picture is a link and the picture may make it obvious where the link goes. But to anyone using assisted means to view the site, and also to the web crawlers, will not be obvious at all. Consider using the alt test for the picture to describe where the link is going and what is the content at the other end of the link.
3. Search
Does your site have a search option? This can be a very good way for people to quickly find what they are looking for. It is worth remembering that people will very quickly become disheartened if they cannot find what they want...and Google and other peoples websites are just a click away.
So ideally all sites should have a functional search option which present the searcher with a choice of content on your site which matches their search term.
4. Sitemap
All to often a neglected feature of websites but one which can provide a very useful shortcut for the visitor
Search Engine Friendliness
Often considered as a subject in its own right this is also a key part of whether the website works.
At the end of the day if the site cannot be found then it might as well not exist.
So ownership of a website does not end with its launch - this is just a beginning. You need to ensure that the site is properly presented to the search engines and then continue to work towards improving your sites position when someone types in a search which you would want to return your site.
Let's cut through some jargon and some mystery.
Keywords
The words people type into the search engine to find websites. So for example if someone is looking for a mobile disco in Blackheath they would type in "mobile disco blackheath". If you run a mobile disco in blackheath you are looking for your website to appear high in the listings on Google and other search engines.
You might not want to appear high in the listings for just "mobile disco" - after all you are no interested in people looking for a disco in Aberdeen!!
On the other hand you might well be interested in "mobile disco London" or "wedding disco blackheath"
The key thing is to identify what terms people use when searching and you want to be found.
Pagerank
Your Google pagerank for example is a good indicator of how your site might perform in searches, but it is not the whole story, I have seen sites with pagerank of 0 outperform sites with pageranks much higher. Pagerank is an indicator that you are doing the right things but the most important indicator is the position of your site when a search is performed.
MetaContent
Metacontent is content that does not appear to the user but is readable to the search engine spiders. A few years ago the meta keywords and meta description of a site was all important but today, whilst having some importance, it is not as important as, for example, the significance and relevance of your real content.
In summary don't get hung up on one thing or another - a balanced approach to continual enhancement of your site is the best approach to improving your search engine position.
There is much more to search engine optimisation, we have not talked at all about backlinks for example, but that is for another article.
Does it Work II
Does the site work for the visitor?
This question can best be approached by considering two aspects, form and function.
 Form
This is the look of the site, what many people think of as the design and all too often this is where all the effort goes.
A great example of this is Flash introduction or landing pages. Yes they look very smart but actually most people find them quite irritating and they contain almost nothing that is readable by the search engine spiders so that they are a severe hindrance to your site being found.
My advice is ask yourself why you want a Flash intro, what will it do? how will it help your website do what it is supposed to do - ie sell your goods or services?
A well designed website is one that presents the visitor with a clear, uncluttered view of what the site is about and clear navigation through the site. By all means use images, layout etc. to ensure that the visitor is presented with a professional, clean, sharp design but never lose sight of what you want the visitor to do next.
Function
Finally - but probably most important lets look at what the website is to do.
Is it a shop?
or a room booking site?
What do you want people to do next? and does this work.
If it is a shop how easy is it to navigate to the checkout? Is it really necessary for people to have to register before buying?
Is the information on purchase presented clearly and unambiguously?
If the aim is to get them to contact you how easy is this for the visitor to do? Do they have to find the contact page, copy an email address and go and write an email? - because they won't!!!
Far better to have a small for - a "Call me Back" form where they can enter a minimum number of details and hit the submit button. Yes you will get people who will fail to fill in some information......you would not believe the number of times I receive call me back requests with no telephone number!!....but on the other hand if you have multiple repeat boxes you will probably lose them anyway.
So, to summarise Function, obviously your shop, booking engine, forms etc. MUST work reliably. But they must also be easy to use.
In Conclusion
Good website design is about much more than the look of the site, it is about whether it works for the visitor (including whether it can be found, viewed by ALL visitors and the search engine crawlers) and it is about whether it works for you - ensuring that the maximum number of visitors take the next step towards returning some of your investment in the website.
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