Site Navigation Can Make or Break Your Website

When constructing your website you need clean site navigation. To start, you want to keep your buttons very clean and clear so that anyone can read the text. Keep your links in the same spot on every page. Stay away from animated buttons and flashing logos; these things are considered cheesy novelty items that shold be avoided as much as possible.

Another thing to avoid is frames. If you don't know what frames are, then great. You probably don't need to worry about them. However, as you get into this world of web development you'll soon discover them. A web page that employs frames usually has a line down one side separating the navigation from the content. When a link is clicked, the page doesn't refresh completely, but only a portion of the page refreshes. Frames can create headaches in terms of site organization and navigation, so stay away from them.

If your site scrolls down endlessly, then chances are, you've messed up somewhere. Stay away from the "never ending page." Instead break it into small chunks. You shouldn't have a ton of text to present. Users don't want to read too much text. Instead you should keep your words to a minimum and break up a really long page into multiple ones. To sum things up, don't try to squeeze large amounts of content into one page.

Another common mistake that's akin to the "never ending page" is the "big giant image." If you know someone who designs in Adobe Photoshop, they'll tell you that it has the ability to slice up an image and quickly export the HTML along with its images. Slicing a large image into smaller images will allow your page to load faster, which always makes your customers happier.

In the area of first impressions, a restaurant should stay away from intro pages. The general "surfing public" hates these pointless pages. These were cool several years agowhen flash was all the rage. Designers would put an intro page, a sort-of-animated cartoon-like page as the first page of the site. The point was to introduce the web site to the world. These are passe.

Fact is, fancy intro-pages are old and people don't like them. Skip the fancy intro, so your guests won't have to.

Another thing you want to avoid is excessive PDF files. In certain circumstances it is okay to use a PDF, like when you're presenting your menus, because oftentimes people like to print the menu and take it with them. They read it in the car on the way to the restaurant.

In the instance of the menu, creating a PDF allows you not only to update it quite easily by simply replacing it on the server with a new one, but it also allows you to control the way it looks when printed. There are many advantages to using PDF documents, but I don't recommend that you use them excessively or in leiu of a web page.

The idea here is the old K.I.S.S Principal: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Less is more blessed! Simplicity equals easier pages, easier pages equals cleanliness, order and an easy-to-read, easy-to-follow web site. All of this translates into one major advantage: Happy Customers!

Do it right. Spillover can help.

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