Overview

The Effective Web Design guide is more than 350 pages in length – and we believe it to be one of the most comprehensive reports of its kind available. It provides you with a steer on all the key aspects of website design, ranging from conception and design, through to subjects such as usability and search engine optimisation.

It is intended as a single point of reference covering best practice approaches for all the topics that anyone involved with website design needs.

About this guide

This guide to web design covers all the key topics we believe are essential to effective web design. 

We have structured the document around all the aspects necessary to create a balanced design and build web project. These are broken down into six parts which we have made available as separate sections for ease of reference: 

• Strategy and planning
• User-centred design and usability
• Accessibility and web standards
• Information architecture
• Persuasive design, copywriting and web analytics
• Implementation and management

Within this, numerous topics are extensively covered, including: 

• 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.

Who this guide is for

Our guide will help you if you are involved in commissioning, designing or managing a website.

If you are commissioning a website, this guide will give you:

• Templates for developing a brief for a new website
• Full details on all the business requirements a website must deliver
• What to look for in an agency when selecting the core competencies such as visual design, usability, accessibility, information architecture, persuasion and search engine optimisation.

If you are involved in designing a website, this guide will give you:

• Best practice guidelines for all key aspects of website design including: visual design, usability, accessibility, information architecture, persuasion and search engine optimisation. Benchmark your agency’s capabilities against best practice.
• A detailed reference for implementation of practical features of websites including home page design, page template layout, navigation, on-site search, search engine optimisation.
• Inspiration on different design approaches for a range of different sites and features.
• A review of your capabilities against what businesses are looking for, so helping you pitch more effectively and design better quality sites

If you are managing a website, this guide will give you:

• A framework to benchmark your site design against competitors.
• Practical tips on improvements for different aspects of your site like the home page, page templates, navigation and search functionality.
• Best practice in persuasion through refining your key marketing messages and how they are communicated.