Design Standards Insure Website Success

The internet is a haven for creativity, and the ingenuity of designers will no doubt constantly evolve and continue to impress. Nevertheless, when it comes to usability and function, there is a strong case for adhering to a “standard of design” when developing websites. In fact, many designers, in spite of their creativity, have migrated to a set of similarities, whether by imitation or accident, it is hard to say. Nevertheless, this “standard” now impacts users since they grow accustomed to certain things, then grow to expect them.


For example, it has become customary to place the logo in the top left corner of the header of a website, and then link that logo to the home page from any other page that displays the header. Many web shoppers and surfers grow to expect that functionality at every site they visit. But, if it isn't there, or if other functionality they expect is missing, they get annoyed, impatient, and then leave. Jakob Nielson observed, “In my recent research into Web-wide user behavior, users left websites after 1 minute and 49 seconds on average, concluding in that time that the website didn't fulfill their needs.” (See his research.) Thus, to insure the success of your website, there is strong case for making sure your website follows acceptable standards of design and function.


At HIT Web Design, emphasis is placed on adhering to a design standard known as W3C, which stands for the World Wide Web Consortium. Since 1994, this organization has advocated certain standards, and by adhering to them, websites benefit in many ways. For instance, W3C compliant websites can be viewed successfully on any browser, they can be viewed from any devices such as a cell phone or a personal digital assistant (PDA), and they are easily accessible by the handicapped. (See W3C Compliance.)


Perhaps most important, however, W3C compliance is critical to search engine optimization (SEO) as well. By following W3C guidelines, designer can insure “that not only is the copy marked up in a semantic fashion which search engines can interpret and weigh without confusion, it also skews the content-to-code ratio in the direction where it needs to be while forcing all of the information in the page to be made accessible, thus favoring the content.” (See W3C Compliance.) Thus, as the current trend in search engines is to give high marks for original, well-written content, the significance of a W3C compliant website is obvious.

For more information, please visit http://www.hitwebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.