Important Aspects of Good Web Design

BusinessWeek recently published a good article called the 10 Commandments of Web Design. The article outlines the aspects of design that keep a website attractive, yet functional. Too often, firms without a good understanding of how to design for the web try to put up sites that are not optimized for the medium. I've whittled BusinessWeek's top 10 down to the top three items from the article that we hold dearest to our hearts when we design a new website.

1. Thou shalt not abuse Flash - We have never built a fully flash site. They're hard to navigate and horrible for Search Engines. Flash can definitely enhance certain elements of a site, but we feel that we can achieve most of the same effects through use of Javascript and other languages that make it easier for Search Engines to spider. We use Flash at times, but are very careful to not abuse it and to focus more on creating a functional and navigable site.
2. Thou shalt not clutter - One of our top priorities is to streamline a site's layout, making it easy to navigate and get information quickly. This is especially helpful with political campaign websites, as voters come to the site wanting to quickly be able to understand a candidate and their issue stances. We aim to keep all over layouts clutter-free and easy to navigate.
3. Thou shalt create immersive experiences - We aim to ensure that each of our sites is extremely engaging to visitors. We accomplish this by giving our clients the ability to easily edit content, create unlimited pages, manage unlimited photo galleries, build contact forms, host videos, and much more through our powerful content management system. By being able to manage and scale out your site, visitors will become engaged, frequently visit the site, and generate more page views.

We're perpetual students of great design and new technology, and we help each of our clients launch sites that are consistent with the best on the web.