Methods

Content

Appropriate content is always important, too much meaningless text takes the user away from their task of gaining information or looking for that important product. Too little text can also have a negative approach, leaving voids on pages and a feel of emptiness making the site seem incomplete. Getting the balance can take several attempts, having too much and trimming down is always the better approach.

Structure

Once content is created, it can be fitted into an agreed structure dependent on audience type, working out how many pages are needed and what needs to be trimmed out.

After pages are decided upon, navigation, quick info, footers, headers and general structure can be looked at. At this point the pages start to take shape and types of layout can be addressed, floating layouts that fit to any screen and fixed layouts are discussed based on audience and content type.

Content Priority

Users will visit your site for a specific reason, find this and make this stand out. This is one of the main problems with a lot of designs, they make you hunt for things, breaking up the natural flow of information.

Taking the user to the most important part first, will cut down on the amount of time people need to spend reading or hunting to find what they want.

When you first visit any site, your attention should be brought straight to the most important part first (usually main text body), second should be navigation so users can find what they want if not already there, everything else is supporting information only. If your attention is broken through animated images or by changing colour or even by having to hunt down your information you will alienate your user from your website.