Web Design Best Practice Guide 2007

The aim in creating this best practice web design guide is to provide a regularly updated, single point of reference covering best practice approaches for all the topics that anyone involved with website design needs to do an effective job.

At more than 350 pages in length we believe this one of the most comprehensive reports of its kind available, and should provide you with a steer on all the key aspects of website design.

About this Guide

This guide to web design was compiled during the first half of 2007 and covers all the key topics we believe are essential to effective web design. These include:

• Accessibility
• User-centred design and usability
• Internet marketing planning and improvement process
• Information architecture and findability
• Search engine optimisation (SEO)
• Web standards
• Persuasion to deliver business results
• Web analytics
• Legal requirements

We don’t include guidance on technical aspects of site design coding using web standards like XHTML, CSS and Javascript although we do cover the importance of agreeing web standards support at the start of a design project.

Contents

We have structured the guide around all the design aspects necessary to create a balanced design. There are 14 key aspects of web design which need to be managed for a successful project. These are broken down into six parts which we have made available as separate sections for ease of reference. We have summarised the success factors in a visual success map for effective website design.

Here is an overview of what's contained within these sections:

PART 1. Strategy and Planning

• Section 2. Internet marketing planning and improvement process.

PART 2. User-centred design and usability

• Section 3. User-centred web design process.
• Section 4. Web usability.

PART 3. Accessibility and Web standards

• Section 5. Web accessibility.

PART 4. Information Architecture

• Section 6. Information architecture.
• Section 7. Visual Design.
• Section 8. Findability Best Practice Principles.
• Section 9. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Best Practice Principle.

PART 5. Persuasive Design, copywriting and web analytics

• Section 10. Persuasive design & copywriting.
• Section 11. Using web analytics to improve website design effectiveness.

PART 6. Implementation and management

• Section 12. Technical site requirements.
• Section 13. The Law - is your site legally compliant?
• Section 14. Selecting agencies to support web design.