Web design consists of a number of various skills and regulations that are combined together to produce and uphold a website. There are different categories in web designing; the interface design, coding of the website, search engine optimization, user design and many more. Different people have different expertise in these areas and they combine together in order to execute a website having some or all of the areas mentioned above in it. The people that work for the development of a website are known as web engineers and web designers; they are aware of the usability of the content and involve the innovation of mark ups in order to keep the web pages up to date.
Once a website is designed, its practicality is the most important part to give attention to; from practicality it means to know whether if it’s functional or not. There are functional elements of a website that need to be taken care of before launching the final website for the viewers. Functional design can also be defined as a computer modeling technique. The main six elements to keep in mind include:
- Know the main purpose: Take the example of Wikipedia. The website’s main purpose is to provide maximum knowledge regarding any topic. The website is designed according to its purpose and the web engineers have made it functional in an aligned manner. Therefore, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the main purpose the website will hold.
- Consider the Audience: The most important element for a website is the audience that will be viewing it. The audience is the one that determines the success or the failure of any website. Usually web designers do not keep this element in mind while developing a website and thus face failure. While analyzing your audience, the main points that need to be covered include the kinds of personalities the audience has? The level of experience and knowledge they hold, how much help or assistance do they require while using the internet or new technology etc.
- Audience and Purpose: As discussed above the two main aspects to consider while developing a website include its purpose and its audience. The third point to keep in mind is how the audience perceives and then takes benefit from the website.
- Simplicity: The website should be designed in such a way that its functionality is clear to its users. The best deigned websites speak for themselves and become the key element of a successful functional website.
- Feedback: A very important element that needs not to be missed while developing a website is the feedback process. It not only helps the design in being friendlier but also helps the viewers in assuring that their request is submitted. For example there are many websites that do not show a confirmation message on the submission of any purchase, because of which the customer presses the submit button multiple times, causing duplicate purchases. Therefore, the websites that show confirmation are more reliable and are considered to give more satisfaction to the customer.
- Handling mistakes: A website that shows errors to the viewers is a poorly developed website and leaves a permanent bad impression on the viewer. Many times people do not find relative information and try to go back to the previous page but face errors or server busy sign which frustrates the user forcing him to dislike your website. The design of a website should be in such a manner that accommodates the visitor’s mistakes as much as possible and provides quick and easy solutions to the viewers.
