If you’ve read any other posts on this blog, you know that I generally consider content or services to be the most important part of any Web site. Users want to know, “what can I do here?” — and everything you do, from design to layout to artwork or photos, should focus on that question. [...]

There’s a lot of talk about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) lately. It’s like it’s the second coming of Jello Pudding Pops — everybody’s just gotta have one. And as with most Internet things, where the buzz is, businesses have sprung up to meet the “need.” All these businesses need clients, so they set about creating [...]

Now you can get expert feedback on your Web site or a portion of a site (such as proposed redesigns). I launched my Rapid Review service because, frankly, I wished someone else was doing it for the sites I’ve designed. Here’s the deal: It’s fast. You’ll get a report back in under three business days. [...]

Here’s a guideline for people designing a Web site (or anything else for that matter): if you’re looking at the draft design and thinking something’s not right, don’t add anything. Instead, take something away. Too often a decent start is marred by clutter. We should resist the urge to “fix” a design by adding more [...]

This blog is relaunched today along with the shiny new Web site for Brian Wold Consulting. Yep, I’m out on my own now, providing full-service Web consulting. Browse the nav links at the top of these pages for details on the services. Whew! Merging the look and feel of this blog is a decent example [...]

Consistency in font, color and size matters. As visitors move through your Web site, they gather clues (unconsciously, perhaps) to the structure of each page. It helps them move to the meat faster. This is part of what makes a user feel comfortable on your site — it’s a good thing and you should protect [...]

Pay attention to where and how you place hyperlinks in text on the screen. Here are guidelines, with dead-link examples : First, be sure your style makes the link look like a link. Use a distinct color. Nielsen and others advocate for keeping it the browser-default blue; I don’t see anyone getting confused by a [...]

In general, users prefer the “action” items on a Web page to follow some sort of understandable flow — I’ll propose a linear flow moving down and right. By action items, I mean buttons or links where I can do stuff — submit a form, click to a subtopic, etc. And as noted elsewhere, users [...]

Web design is comparative — since you’re one click away from the competition, comparison between your design and theirs is easy — and people do it, whether consciously or not. So what the competition is doing should matter to you. But just as important is what’s happening with Amazon, CNN, Yahoo and Google. For a [...]

Try this: visit a Web page or two (ones you don’t regularly visit) and pay attention to the first thing you see on the page. I’ll bet it’s just above the center of the screen. ‘Course, if you’re on a slow modem, you’ll be looking at whatever loads first — unless you’re like me, and [...]