A Web developer needs to wear many hats these days, from programmer to PR rep to market researcher. Making your site all it can be involves much more than putting together a few graphics and your contact information on a single index.html page. In this week's open publishing article, writer Peggie Brown offers us useful tips for creating and maintaining your Web site.

Categorize

Categories help your visitor move about your site quickly andefficiently. If visitors get frustrated, chances are they willlose interest and find a site easier to navigate. Well-definedcategories often require a lot of planning and quite a bit ofthought, but the time is well spent. Well-defined categories maymean the difference between a buyer and someone who just surfs onin frustration.

Be A Site Visitor

First, we mean that you should pay attention to details when you visit other sites. Note navigation that works, what entices you to look further and what frustrates you to the point of irritation. Next, we suggest you put yourself in the shoes of your target site visitor. What do you want to find and how do you go about findingit? Pretend a little here, forget that you have ever seen the site before or that you know its content. Really challenge yourself to find what doesn't work well. Look for intuitive ways to find site content. What clues are used to get you where you want to go?

Get opinions from others and then listen well. It's hard to takecriticism, but you really need people to surf about the site andtell you what does not work for them. When you hear "I couldn'tfind my way home," don't chalk it up to them being an idiot notable to find their way out of a paper bag. Instead, realize thatwhile clicking on the banner with the logo seemed obvious to you,it wasn't to someone else.

Consistency and Predictability

Sounds pretty boring, doesn't it? We all want to make our sitejust a tad different and try new things. But listen up! Try yourcreativity when writing your content, designing your graphics,choosing your colors (but nothing ugly!), customizing yourcontent. Do not try it with your navigation system. Visitors don't like to figure out how to move about a site. Surfers wantpredictable and consistent navigation, so stick with it and becreative elsewhere. Many want to move about quickly and if you donot allow them to do so, they'll be off in a flash! After all,navigation is not where you want your visitors to focus.

Speaking of navigation, have two different systems with at leastone navigation system not dependent on graphics. Not everyonesurfs with images on and many sight disabled people do surf theInternet.

Loud Colors Do Not Equal Creativity

Creative design does not mean you should make your visitors pullout there sunglasses or run off to throw up! Cutting edge designwork does not mean using colors no one else would think of using.Nor does it mean showing that you can use every font coloravailable. Believe it or not, cutting edge designs are often sosimplistic that others miss the boat with their gee-whiz effectsand whirling graphics. Unless you are selling graphics, youcertainly don't want your graphics and visual effects to down-play your content. Images and colors are enhancements, not themain focal point of a site.