Print this page
Design Considerations

Creating a website

When deciding to create a website to advertise and promote your business, there are several things should be considered.

Purpose of the Website
What is the primary (and secondary) goals for your website. Should it be a place to talk about you products and services or should it focus on you experience in delivering those products. In the case of a restaurant, you might focus on your food, your people, your physical plant or your connection to the community.

Essential Elements
One of the things that you should strive for on your website is consistency between the pages. To that end, each page should contain the following elements:
· Name of the Company (header) displayed in a clearly visible place (usually as a banner at the top of the page or a logo in the upper left hand corner
· The Topic associated with the specific page being displayed (Home page, Dinner menu, etc.)
· The Navigational Menus that allow you to get from one page to another
· Narrative describing the topic of the page. This could take the form of a menu, directions to the restaurant, discussion of the seasonal menus or hours of operation.
· Graphics supporting the topic. Pictures of dishes or the restaurant, map for directions on getting to the restaurant, clip art or photos of thing relating to a special event (St. Patrick's Day green hat)


Page Layout Options
· Banner on top with Menus horizontally under them
· Banner on top, Menus vertically on the left hand side of the page
· Company Logo (Small square, rectangle or circle) in upper left hand corner with menus vertically underneath


Things to avoid
· Cluttering up a page with multiple themes, messages or graphics
· Brilliant colored fonts
· Graphics that fill the whole page with narratives superimposed on top
· Music playing in the background (unless it is part of a movie clip)
· Moving banners
· Narratives to blend into the background making it difficult to read
· Not being able to get from the current page to any one of the others

Considerations
· If you want to use a photo as a background for a page, the header, navigation menus and narrative should have a solid colored background the solid color should complement the majority color in the background photo.
· Photo galleries are a good way to highlight the major strengths of your company. Each photo should be accompanied with a brief description of the photo
· All menu items should be of similar color and background


JavaScript printing