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Website Consistency is Your Best Friend
By Robert Campbell on Monday, January 4th, 2010
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Still brainstorming for this years blog posts, I knew I still had to come up with something for the first business day of the year. I decided to write about the most important thing I can stress, site wide CONSISTENCY.
If You Want a Great Website
If you want a great website, you need consistency. The site needs to be consistent in format, usage, and even in your sites code. Your code is where it all starts, and slop on the server side reflects the same on the user side. Here are a few tips to keep your site consistent throughout.
Tips to keep your site consistent for the user:
- Have a readme.txt file within the root directory of your site – The file should provide the current method for creating a new page or content on the site.
- Use CSS – When the first line of HTML (<body>) is written for a new website, so should the first line of a style sheet. Using CSS for your HTML tag attributes is the easiest way to give your site a consistent format on every page.
- Keep it simple – Limit the number of design elements. Use only a few types of font styles at most. Limit the number of colors used, and limit the number of menus found on one page. Avoid menu stacking!
- Avoid copying and pasting content from Microsoft Word or similar software – Many programs, like Microsoft Word, will include the formatting required to make the content look right on its platform. By copying and pasting to a simple text editor like Notepad first, will remove that extra formatting. Let your style sheet do the formatting. It may be an extra step, but it’s necessary for consistency.
- Use a style guide – A style guide is different than a style sheet. A style guide is reference book that can be either created by yourself, or purchased. Style guides give rules on how to capitalize, use acronyms, and to even use words like “web site” or “website”. It’s website here. It’s basically a rule book for your writing format.
- Be prepared for dynamic content – Creating a website with just HTML pages can be very limiting. When using a language like PHP or ASP, your site will open up to all sorts of options. It also makes for easy site wide editing. Don’t know PHP? Try creating a test page on your site using HTML, and label the file test.php. If your server supports PHP (most likely), you will have just created your first PHP page. Special note here: It’s not my fault if you become instantly addicted to PHP.
- Structure your data – Using a consistent format can even be beneficial for gaining more search traffic!
- Create a checklist – Create a check list that you use before publishing a new page. You could include it in your readme.txt file, your style guide, or as a ready to use form that is just sitting on your desk. A check list will nearly guarantee a consistent user experience.
Consistency is what it’s all about, and it starts with you!
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Category: Code, Usability & Design Tags: consistency, style guide, style sheet, website
Good tips. Keeping it simple is key though its hard sometimes as there are so many widgets and bells and whistles available.
yup, simple is the key, we don’t want to think you know
i have to disagree .. a great website means great money to invett. unless you got money for a great site, a regular website can workout well also.
Simplicity is always a beauty and web design that feed customer’s satisfaction is always the key to successful websites.
Simplicity is always a beauty and web design that feed customer’s satisfaction is always the key to successful websites.