5 Elements of Good Web Design

A well-designed website makes it easy for visitors to find what they're looking for. Whether you're building a one-page personal website or a 1000-page content site, there are certain design elements that you should adhere to in order to maximize your site's success.

(XSitePro 2.0 makes it exceptionally easy with hundreds of built-in templates that are designed with your success in mind).

1.  Keep it simple. You might think the more gizmos you put on a page, the better your visitor will like it. Stuff like animations, sounds, pictures, video, and loads of text are nothing more than distractions and can easily frustrate a visitor no matter how informative your site may be.

(With XSitePro 2.0's WYSIWYG format, it's easy to keep your site clean and simple.)

2.  Keep text legible.  Hard-to-read text is one of the biggest turn-offs to visitors. Black text on a white background is still the easiest to read. And no fancy fonts, either. A simple Arial, Verdana or Times New Roman font does very nicely and is the easiest to read. Size should be sufficient to prevent eye strain. A 10 or 12 point size is what most websites use.

(Fortunately, XSitePro 2.0 doesn't give you a lot of fancy fonts to choose from. It limits your choice to only the most commonly used fonts among top web designers.)

3.  Keep graphics pertinent.  It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words -- but only if it's pertinent to the subject at hand. Graphics can certainly enhance an otherwise boring, text-only page, but only if it reinforces the subject matter at hand. A graphic for graphics sake is simply a distraction. Too many graphics can make a website slow to load and will cause visitors to leave before they even take a look at your site.

(XSitePro 2.0's clip-art library contains very basic graphics -- arrows, buttons and lines. Adding your own images, however, is a whiz with it's built-in image library.)

4.  Keep navigation easy to understand. Your navigation buttons or bars should be consistent throughout your web site so visitors will always know where they're at.

(XSitePro 2.0's automated navigation menu controls making your site navigation a breeze to set up, complete with sub-pages and category headings.)

5.  Keep it consistent. Unless you're building a megasite like About.com or MSN.com, a website hould contentrate on a single subject, commonly referred to as a niche. This is true whether it's a content or ecommerce website.

(With it's built-in file structure, XSitePro 2.0 allows you to build and keep track of hundreds of websites.)