what makes website looks more professional or authentic ?

Question

Hi,

I am creating a social networking ( yet another ) website targeting specific non-technical audience.

How do I make it look/feel more professional ?

How do you prepare a website so it feel authentic ?

I am looking answer in terms of usability, font selection, colors, navigation, level of ajax, form design, link position, how to create uniqueness, help text and their position ?, localization etc. Any reference to good book and article is welcome too.

and also, How do I design it so that learning curve reduce to minimal ? And User can start using it without reading lots of article or watching video.

Thanks.

Answer 1

This looks like a question for Doctype.

Answer 2

I'm not sure that you'll find a definative answer like "simply follow this techniquie and your site will be an instant sucess"... but rather find a number of pointers which can help you understand web design. Personally I am a huge fan of the Smashing Magazine website. It contains a ton of useful articles and tips on design. One of my favourites is this link: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/05/12/case-study-deconstructing-popular-websites-opinion-column/

Answer 3

smashingmagazine.com is great. Just visit sites that appeal to you and see what they have in common with each other.

A good website is logical, users shouldn't work hard to learn the design - so stick to conventions eg having the navigation bar up the top of the page or using a easy to read font like verdana. Typography has a huge impact on the site, so focus a lot on how your text is formatted.

For colours consider your audience. If it's a site you want the user to visit daily, maybe tone the colours down so they don't overwhelm the users. It's good to create a stunning website with amazing graphics, but those kind of sites are often the site you don't visit daily. For example facebook doesn't use much colour at all.

If you can, user icons. They don't need to be huge or colourful, simple icons that are one or two colours can be best. Signs are a universal language and effectively using icons can make a page that much more easy to understand.

I sometimes brows the web design section of deviantart.com for some inspiration too, but make sure to visit smashingmagazine.com.