Datasheet

FUTURE-PROOF WEB DESIGN

Planning for a Successful Website

Understanding the environment you’re designing for is critical when building a site, and

knowing the needs of your audience is critical to a successful design. After all, recognizing

potential situations beforehand allows you to make more informed, practical choices.

With information about a user’s environment, you can avoid making potentially costly

mistakes that could reduce a site’s usability, and by planning ahead, you can direct your

attention to speci c aspects of a design that may be more open to implementation quirks

than others.

Determining project requirements

When developing for the Web, you must be able to determine the requirements and needs

of a project. Often, for service providers, the demands of a project include the additional

features, functionality, and layout choices that users may  nd helpful. For situations in

which you produce work for clients, the ability to look beyond just the scope of a site and

into the future needs of their businesses will help ensure that the design works for the

speci c audiences the clients are targeting. Because every site will be di erent, catering to

niches is important.

 e initial requirements that in uence your tactics are those laid down by the users of the

site. Happy visitors often result in customer loyalty, so, whenever you can, put users  rst.

Ensuring that your users have access to sites and services regardless of the platform or

device they use (which equals ubiquity) means that you can more easily get them to

choose you over a competitor — and choice is a powerful motivator.

Here are some features that make for happy users:

> Consistency in a site’s design

> Accessible and easy-to-use layouts

> Aesthetically pleasing designs

> Goal-oriented, useful layouts

Remember, the bene ts of a ubiquitous interface extend beyond what the user sees and

the devices the user uses to access your site.  e number of social networks, search

engines, and third-party tools connecting to your site is increasing, and it’s likely that the

more demanding and restrictive methods they use to view and utilize your content will

become increasingly important. Just think about software like Instapaper or an RSS

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