How getting the basics in place will put your website on the right track from day one.
When I hear about a potential new client and their needs, i instantly think of how I can incorporate new technologies, maybe an online community or how i can use AJAX.
I then come back to these fundamental practices when creating any sort of design or pitch.
Company Information
As simple as it sounds, having your company logo on every page is a must in modern websites. Users also expect this to be clickable, and to take them back to the companies home page.
Making the new visitor feel comfortable as soon as they land is extremely in whether they stick around or not.
Links
You don’t have to stuff your pages with information, split it up into chunks that make it easy for the user to find. For example you don’t have to list all your products on every single page, perhaps list your top 5 best sellers with a “more products” will do the trick.
Images
With Broadband, it’s not so important to limit your images or image sizes but as a guide, if you are using smaller photo’s then reduce the quality - our eyes can’t see the difference when it’s that small.
Accessibility
This shouldn’t be ignored. Make sure all your pages are accessible for those with disabilities or those who haven’t got the latest version of Internet Explorer. This goes hand in hand with User Testing which is detailed below.
User Testing
On the cheap-end, this can be as simple as getting everyone from the client to your next door neighbour to log on to your new website.
User Testing usually comes once there is a design but I wanted this on the list because if it is in your mind from the beginning, you should be more inclined to make your site more user friendly.
Search
If the website is large, then a search facility is a must. Users also expect to find this along the top or the top-right of your website.
Blogging sites such as Wordpress allow this facility fairly simply, so don’t think you need an all singing and dancing CMS system if you only need to update products or news stories.
I like this article because I can forward it to potential clients and it says all I need to say without being too rude about it!
Alot of what I put on here is basically what I’d like potential clients to read because I wasn’t able to put a portfolio up - it’s sort of snowballed from there lol.