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Visual Layout and ElementsDesign within boundaries of an "image-safe" area
Design in a style that will appeal to your audience's tastes Use your audience profile and strategy definition to define a visual style for your site which they will find appealing. A reference site for a general corporate audience will need to convey a different image than a site which should appeal to restaurant managers and hobbyist connoisseurs interested in exotic fruit. Test the visual design Before you begin coding and creating the visuals for your site, ask users to evaluate the planned visual style. Create some quick paper sketches that are easily revised. Offer your participants alternative sketches of different designs. Consider asking each participant the following questions:
Creating simple sketches are valuable not only for soliciting feedback from users, but also for communicating your purpose and plans to other team members. Establish and/or comply with your organization's design conventions Many organizations have an established set of design conventions that dictate how their logo and related elements of corporate identity are to appear on stationery and other materials. Consistent design conventions help your organization become more recognizable to the public. If your organization does not have a set of design conventions that apply to web design, you might suggest that one be established. Maintain consistent visual identity Establish a visual identity by using related visual elements throughout your site. A consistent visual style gives a site a sense of unity and reinforces users' experience that they are rooted in a certain place. Present your message efficiently and avoid clutter Your words and your design will be more powerful if you can say more with less, so be rigorous about eliminating superfluous elements. Every element of your design should support the goal of your message. While using purely decorative elements is legitimate, keep in mind that a tremendous amount of information is competing for users' attention. Information overload can cause discomfort and prevent users from finding the information they want to find. Draw attention to new or greatly changed content Regularly updating your site will increase its value and give users incentive to return. Make it easy for users to see what you have added and when you added it as soon as they enter your site. Enable users to go directly to the new information without wasting time reviewing areas they have already seen. You can provide direct links from a "What's New?" area to the new information. Avoid requiring users to scroll in order to determine page contents Users should be able to recognize immediately whether the subject of any given page interests them. Elements that are critical to identifying page contents need to be visible in the image-safe area without scrolling. Avoid requiring the use of horizontal scroll bars
Use the top and left areas of the page for navigation and identity Display navigation and identity in the top and left areas of the screen. A masthead at the top of each page works well for displaying a company logo and high-level site categories. The left area of the screen is useful for displaying navigation links within a category. Users are comfortable and familiar with this design. It also clearly and consistently separates navigation from content so that users know where to find each. This layout has tested well with users of the IBM site. |
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![[sketch of image-safe area]](images/imgsafe.gif)
