Editor's note: This post continues a series of blog posts spotlighting Office Live Small Business Web sites for their design quality. These posts are written by design expert Sara Richardson-McCreery, creative director and founder of Spikes Like LLC near Washington, D.C., and a frequent contributor to Office Live Small Business. Richardson-McCreery will post regularly here about Office Live sites she feels are well-designed, and will offer design tips and ideas in her posts.
Why has this site been selected?
HomeRemediesForYou.com, a free website that provides information about natural home remedies, has been chosen to be featured here because it is an excellent example of how to create attractive interior page layouts.
Did you know that the home page is not always the first page visitors will use to enter your site? Search engines, social bookmarking tools, blogs (and more!) offer online users multiple entry points into your website. This means that instead of landing on your home page over and over, visitors can enter your site through, for instance, the “About Us” page or “product description” or even a “Terms of Use” page.
Do not worry, your home page has not deflated in value. But instead, consider the idea that your interior pages are just as important as the home page.
Strong interior page design can sell your site
The interior pages of a website are often referred to as sublevel pages. HomeRemediesForYou is a terrific illustration of how to organize and treat interior page content — the operative word being “organize.” Be sure to visit this site and click around the sublevel pages.
Here’s what I like about the HomeRemediesForYou pages:
- Check out this page. Note how the site's designers have used tables and color to help create visual separations between content groups. By making a strong distinction between content topics (or information), your viewers can understand your content more easily.
- Packing your website pages full of content and photography can often lead to overwhelming your audience with just plain ol’ too much. See how this site’s designers have reduced the amount of items per page to a few, highly poignant entities that are formatted and organized thoughtfully.
- The site’s designers have made an effective use of white space, to give the site a clean, scan-able, and “uncluttered” look.
The design words of wisdom for today? Keep it crisp and clean!
More advice and tips
1. When appropriate, use stylized bullet or number lists. The bullet (or number) accompanying the text makes a more pronounced visual separation to the eye.
2. The horizontal rule or “horizontal line” tool found inside the Office Live Small Business Web Design Tool under “Page Editor” is also a great way to help keep your content looking organized. Try using the horizontal line tool to distinguish content items on your website pages.
3. Don’t be afraid to use white space to your advantage when designing your layouts. Let a little white space into your designs and keep in mind this: Pages that look overcrowded and cramped feel overcrowded and cramped.
Have an Office Live Small Business site that you think is a design winner? Post a comment here with a link and your site might be the next to be featured.
Sara Richardson-McCreery