Best Website layout

[Balaji Loganathan]

Hi,
Can anyone please tell me the URL of "Best Website design" that you have come acrossed in terms of "good looking design,decent graphics,Readability,attractive,easy flow,
browser compatible etc"
thanks in advance.
Regards
Balaji

[Cindy Glass]

Quality Criteria for Website Excellence

[ October 04, 2002: Message edited by: Cindy Glass ]

[Dan Chisholm]

I took a look at four or five of the sites that received the gold award. Most of them included splash pages with animation and sound. Personally, I get a little annoyed by web pages that force me to sit through something that I really don't care to see or hear. If a link to such a page shows up in a search result I usually just click back to the result page and click on the next link. Aside from the people that published that list of best web sites I wonder how many people are really more inclined stay and use a web page that begins the experience by wasting your time.
Does animation and sound on a splash page really enhance a web site or does it just annoy people and cause them to turn away?

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by Dan Chisholm:
[QB]Personally, I get a little annoyed by web pages that force me to sit through something that I really don't care to see or hear.
QB]

Amen!

[Anonymous]

I personally think all useful websites should like as simple as http://jakarta.apache.org/

[Cindy Glass]

I think that you have to consider the nature of the site. The Jakarta Site has a main mission to provide information as easily as possible. And the site is easy to navigate.
However if the primary purpose of the site is to SELL something, then entirly different factors come into play.
If the site is intended to get people to stick around for a long time, then there are yet other factors.

[Jamie Robertson]

www.google.com

[Jamie Robertson]

seriously, now here are a couple that I like ( I like :
Wardrop
and if you want to use flash, incorporate it into the webpage itself, don't make me watch a movie:
Skystream Networks

[Frank Carver]

However if the primary purpose of the site is to SELL something, then entirly different factors come into play.
I'm not sure what you mean by this.
Surely if the site is there to sell someting external (a physical item, a real-world service etc.), then the job of the website should be to make information about that product or service as easy to find and use as possible. If the site is there to sell something directly (access to a "private area", or whatever) than it still has the job of making as much information as possible available to prospective purchasers about what they will get in exchange for their cash.
In neither of the above cases does making anything hard to find, slow to download, or dependent on particular browsers, plugins or operating systems aid the cause.
Please explain a bit more about how difficult or irritating sites can aid selling stuff.

[Cindy Glass]

My 12 year old tends to spend more time on sites that have LOTS of pictures of Country Music Stars. She would not have the slightest interest in a page of solid text. She is entering into the age group with one of the largest amounts of "disposable income" in the world. Teenagers spend MILLIONS of dollars on stuff.
A site aimed at selling stuff to pre-teen and teen age girls is going to try to appeal to something that catches their eye and makes them WANT to spend money. It has NOTHING to do with providing information.
My point is just that there are different drivers for different audiences.
We are a bunch of geeks. We like our information clean and straight.
Most of the world is NOT geeky. They like their information sugar coated. I, however, am not an expert on HOW to sugar coat information for a particular group.

[Randall Twede]

i also dislike splash screens of any sort. why should i have to click something to get to the main page?

[Dan Chisholm]

Originally posted by Cindy Glass:

A site aimed at selling stuff to pre-teen and teen age girls is going to try to appeal to something that catches their eye and makes them WANT to spend money. It has NOTHING to do with providing information.

If you want a teenage girl to buy some clothes then the "information" is a picture of a model wearing the clothes. An animation on a splash page does not serve that purpose unless the animation is the model wearing the clothes that you are trying to sell. Unfortunately, the annoying animations that appear on web sites tend not to provide a demonstration of the product or service that is being offered. Instead, the primary purpose of the annoying splash page tends to be to advertise the web designer's ability to create an animation.
A person that is surfing the web in search of information or a product or a service is actively trying to accomplish something and probably wants to accomplish that task quickly. An annoying splash page only slows the process an angers the client. That's the difference between a television commercial and a web site. A person viewing a television program is engaged in a passive activity and is therefore receptive to things that are intended to be entertaining. A person that is surfing the web is actively trying to accomplish a task and would prefer an experience that promotes the success of that task. An annoying splash page rarely supports the immediate goals of the client.

[Thomas Paul]

Kids who watch MTV want to be entertained by their web sites.