Well, the title probably says it all but neverthless I am going to emphasise on this very essential web design tip. THINK OF THE END USER IN MIND.
A website would not gain constant stream of visitors or even repeated ones if users find the design inaccessible. A dumb and probably even useless fact some of you might say but people still forget it. You have to agree that the visitor is the most important person when drafting out a design. If you can successfully draft out a design thats appealing yet easily accesible to the visitor, then I assure you that your client would feel the same. (with the exception of 0.0001% :p)
Easier said then done, how do you think of the end user in mind while drafting out that layout/design? There are several ways you can go about in doing so.
* Imagine you're the end user every single second of your design phase
* Have friends test out your layout after you're done with drafting
* Dont think whether you or the client would like the aesthetics of the design but more on whether the end user would know where to go to get what he wants.
*Place aesthetic criterias aside and make sure you have a sitemap so that everything is easily accesible.
* What's the purpose of the site? * Target Audience?
* Get outside opinions, critiques, especially those NOT adept at web design.
* Last but not least, would you re-visit the site (with your design) considering you're an outsider?
I just cannot emphasise the importance of the first tip, namely, to imagine yourself in the shoes of the end user of the site you're designing. Without doing so, its rare that one is able to churn up a design for a site that will keep visitors coming back for reasons that include aesthetic appeal as well as accesiblity.
As a web user yourself, I'm very certain none of you wants to go searching through the whole site just to find that link that says "Contact Us" or even wait minutes for images to load on a site. Therefore, thinking of the end user in mind while drafting out your design would ensure that you go to great lengths to ensure a pleasant visit for your visitors and it would show indefinitely.
Some people prefer simplicity, some just awe at graphical excellence, but the fact remains that if the end user does not enjoy his time while on your site, you're most definitely not going to get him to visit your site again lest he's forced to. So it doesnt matter what kind of design/layout you go for, just remember,
Your target audience/end user has to enjoy their stay while on the site.
I can assure you a 100% gurantee that you would be getting revisits on your site. And that is always good because then, word of your site would spread in time to come. Remember that tip for it is like the holy grail of essential web design tips. ;)
For more essential tips on making your design work for you, click here Essential Web Design Tips.
