Good layout and organization
A good or bad website layout is commended subjectively, but some characteristics or factors are mostly affecting the result of people like or not. Little text, little number of characters on a page and visual appeal as well as main large picture on a page could make the website clear and aesthetical. (Cober et al, 2004; Perez, 2008; Djamasbi et al, 2010) Moreover, an excellent website is mostly decided by how the web layout is organized. The information list or menu on the front page should be clear and well organized. (Djamasbi et al, 2010) It is not only important that visitors are willing to stay, read and purchase, but also easy for them to find what they are searching quickly. It is because people are impatient and easily bored. (Nielson, 2005) The better website layout of a company is created, the better brand or organization image is build.
Colour branding
Many researches showed that colour is an important effect on people’s visual performance. “Colours are known to possess emotional and psychological properties” (Lichtle, 2007, P91) Using colour in website design is a brilliant method in marketing. Colour difference combination could make the website aesthetical and memorable. (Cyr, Heas and Larios, 2010) For example, we are recalled the colour of red and white very quickly when we heart Cheaptickets.com. The text and background displayed with colour contrast may be good for visitors reading. (Wang et al, 2002; So and Chan, 2008) Some researches found out that comment white background is the most suitable for reading. Therefore, we could find a lot of famous websites are only used two or three colours such as Facebook in blue and white. The colour on a website likes a logo of a brand. Therefore, the tone and colour of a brand, product or company should be consistent with its website layout design.
Speed and Global concern
In internet market, speed is a big reason visitor concerned. The speed of loading front page or scrolling must be considered during creating and designing a website, so it is no good to put more hyperlinks on homepage. (So and Chan, 2008) All hyperlinks should be related and loaded as quick as possible. People might close the window if they feel they have spent quite a long time to go onto the website. In addition, search engine is needed as it is convenient for customers to search information about products or history. (Chadwick-Dias, Tedesco and Tullis, 2004) The payment procedure should be simple but security. The purchasing process should be a circle step, go, check, buy, pay and back to home page that making customers complete it smoothly and feel satisfied. For global company, foreign languages are needed for customers from different countries. For instance, Google provides many languages on its website.
As the result, an outstanding website design should include simple 2-3 colours and white background colour and good website layout, good organization of website and convenient and easy to use which have been mentioned above. Some examples are mentioned as below.
It is a pity that something people want to read but the various elements were surrounded by the text, so the main purpose designer should do on the website is clearness consideration. Many designers only want to put down more information in this narrow space of a front page. It may results an unhappy and unsatisfied experience for visitors. Reasonable use of blank in the website can give breathing space to the elements and decrease the pressure to the visitors’ eyes in order to give a happy experience to the visitors.
In Soccernet, the simple colours and white background colour are used. People may feel comfortable and read information easily. Also, an excellent design should include high-quality pictures. Pictures should be the complement of your website to promote the products or to convey some information, or just to attract eyeballs. The drawing picture on Tom Pojeta website has brought the vibrant and natural feeling. It could relax people
Guiding people on the website is also an important part of the page, because it is the most important way for users to use the site. Simple and clear guide can not only enhance the site's ease of use, but also can reduce the trouble for users to search the contents. The website of Dabs uses guides and uses sidebar on the left side so that visitors can easily and convenient use this website.
The biggest worry of people browsing is the slow web page loading so that the visitors do not want to read and shut off site. Google utilizes simply design to make the website faster and easier to load. At the same time people prefer to use it.
To conclude, a famous and successful website, MSN Website, is used as tt contains all important factors of website design. First of all, the layout of MSN home page is simple and clear in two main colours which are blue and white. These two colours respond the brand logo that makes whole page containing the images of MSN. Significantly, the colour of background is white and the word descriptions and hyperlinks are in blue colour. The contrast colours make users not only easy to read the information but also feeling comfortable. In addition, it offers other five colours for users to change the major colour of layout. Even though that may change the colour branding, the background and main letters are still in white and blue.
Secondly, the organization of MSN website design is also obvious and simple. For example, entire page is separated into three different areas where different uses has. The search engine is on the top of the page with seven categories. Also, the main information is displayed in the middle of page such as sports, cars, hearth and games which are public and popular issues. In contrast, right area is much more personal. For instance, the email services, messengers, weather forecast and so on are all in the right section. Moreover, here are deeper information on the bottom of the page where is related the extension detail about those above-mentioned issues.
Finally, the search engine (Bing) is efficient with clear selection of searching category such as web, news, images, maps, videos ,shopping and MSN UK. That can shorten the searching time when users are searching. On the other hand, here are many hyperlinks with key words such as cars, eBay, jobs, news, films and so on that can also save user's time on searching internet. Moreover, the clear design of MSN home page also can help viewers to approach what they exactly need by these three major areas. For instance, on the top is for searching information, popular and public issues is in the middle and to check personal information on the right side.
Website is an important tool for marketing nowadays. An excellent website layout could help an organization. On the other hand, a bad website layout design provides negative image to customers. It is a part of brand identity likes brand logo, therefore, marketers and designers should not depreciate.
Reference:
Chadwick-Dias, A.,Tedesco, D. and Tullis, T. (2004) ‘Demographic Differences in Perferred Web Sit Content In Proceedings of Usability Professionals’ Association Annual Conference, Minnesota, 2004
Cober, R., Brown, D. and Levy, P. (2004) ‘Form, Content and Function: An Evaluative Methodology for Corporate employment Web Sites.’ Human Resource Management, 43(2,3), 201-218
Cyr, D. Heas, M. and Larios, H. (2010) ‘ Colour Appeal in Website Design within and across Cultures: A Multi-method Evaluation’ International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 68 (1.2), 1-21
Djamasbi, S., Siegel, M. and Tullis, T. (2010) ‘Generation Y, Web Design and Eye Tracking’ International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 68(5), 307-323
Home Textiles Today (2010.04.01) “Surtex Rebrands, Launches Website” Home Textiles Today, 31 (1), 23-23
Lichtle, M. (2007) ‘The effect of an advertisement’s colour on emotions evoked by an ad and attitude towards the ad.’ International Journal of Advertising, 26(1), 37-62
Perez, S. (2008) ‘ Why Generation Y Is Going to Change the Web.’ ReadWriteWeb, 2008
So, J.C.Y. and Chan, A.H.S. (2008) ‘Effects of Display factors on Dynamic Text’ Engineering Letters, 16 (3), 368-371
Wang, A. H., Chen, C. H. and Chen, M.T. (2002) ‘Effect of Leading Display Design of Dynamic Information on Users’ Visual Performance and Visual Fatigue.’ Journal of the Chinese Institute of Industrial Engineering, 19 (2002), 68-78
