White Space!!!!

Don’t be afraid of white spaces on your site.  Use of white space can really add depth and interest to your site.  How many websites have you seen that are a complete assault on the senses, there are just so many things competing for space on the page that nothing really stands out.  The common mistake is just to keep adding and adding to the website and in the end your original message is completely lost amongst the mire.  So….embrace white space, it really helps the user to feel comfortable when browsing your site.

Don’t be afraid of simplicity

It is far too easy to feel the temptation to make your website a technological wonder – it must be able to do a million and one fancy things and have wondrous fancy moving graphics.  Ok – in it’s place these things are fine, but often a simple approach is always a winner. Your viewer is not necessarily looking to be wowed be technical wizardry, your site must achieve it’s goal of delivering your message in the quickest and most effective manner to your viewer.  Often wizz-bangs really detract from doing this.  Fancy self indulgent intro sequences quickly become irritating and obstructive.

Don’t dictate to your viewer

Your site has one purpose; to hold the interest of your viewer, it is their experience that really counts.  Therefore a big no-no is building features into your site that force the viewer to use a certain screen resolution or to have a certain media player installed.  Some designers often forget that a website is written for the viewer, not to indulge their creative fantasies.