INTERFACE OF A WEBSITE: BASIC FUNCTIONS AND OBJECTIVES

Website design often can be interpreted as development of an interface which allows to efficiently interact with the content. When creating interface of a website one should be focused on how potential users will interact herewith. To make it user-friendly, obeying only several rules set will be enough.

First of all, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Most often the visitors can’t understand the designer’s complex self-expression system and massively leave the website. This means that complicated and overloaded interface is senseless and economically irrational. That’s why it is necessary to clearly envisage the goals of visitors. To find out what exactly is needed, the team shall carry on planning, since it is rather difficult to determine the goals: neither inquiries, nor statistics shall provide a complete picture.

Another simple rule working in all areas of life – keep it simple. Define the website basic functions and emphasize them. Plenty of buttons and links on the screen may disturb the visitor. Therefore, the next rule: interface of a website is not intended for any side task performance. You should remember that it is unlikely that users will read all the texts and view all the pictures, no matter how eager you would be on that. Hence, it is necessary to design the site map in details, think over the cross-reference system.

Select the type of your website. Image websites and promo-websites are visited by a small number of people, but the audience here is the most grateful and targeted. Web portals enjoy greater popularity; however, their audience is more diversified. That’s why it is necessary to think over the interface depending on the resource type. Popular websites shall have most efficient controls: simple, fast and usable, while image websites can have more authentic interface that may even engage a visitor in some kind of game, yet the visitor should from the very beginning understand where he/she has got in and what he/she can find there.

Interface of a website directly influences on how fast and easy the visitor can find necessary information, and whether he/she will want to return to the website.