Web Design Recommendations

• Let the viewer read in peace - when a user finds a piece of information let them read in a relaxing environment. Avoid anything that might interrupt the user both directly or peripherally.
• Have consistent navigation - your user should be able to orient themselves quickly regardless of what page they find themselves on. Remember users will often arrive bang in the middle of your site from a search engine result.
• Design for all users - your site should be viewable across all popular browsers and monitor resolutions.
• Use white space - White space or negative space can be used to describe the space between the elements such as text, graphics and paragraphs on a web page. A good use of space ensures that the page causes less eye fatigue and gives focus to the elements of the page.
• Form should follow function - As much as we love exciting graphic design it should never be allowed to get in the way of functionality.
• Cut the "fluff" - Fluff is content that's intended primarily to impress or persuade, rather than inform. It includes unsupported claims, hype and "duh!" lines - such as, "Our goal is to continually improve our performance." Fluff attempts to impose the perspective of the Web site owner upon the audience - perhaps the most fundamental mistake that an organization's Web site can make.
• Structure your pages to facilitate easy scanning - present your text concisely with numerous paragraph breaks, bullet points, clear titles and bolded keywords. Your user will love you for it.
• Provide clear contact details - allow your user to contact you easily and let them know where you are located in the world (not just the virtual one...).
• Avoid splash entry screens - don't make the user click through an entry screen before they get to the content of your site. The beauty of your well designed entry screen will be lost on an impatient, goal driven user.