A good designer can design anything. So why not websites? With the right knowledge of how a web site and its designing work, a truly artistic mind can turn a drab site into something much more interesting and attractive.

No matter how well the design might go down, it’s usability to the audience is of utmost importance. If the site is not easy to use and navigate, it can confuse a user and he may also get impatient and just simply – go away. Thus, even a simple design can win over a beautiful but complicated website. If a site is simple and easy, more people will be attracted to it, as they wouldn’t have to waste time trying to figure out how the site works. A good design will be attractive to look at, but a great design will be, along with this, invisible. It must be seamless; the audience does not have to know the hard work you put in to designing it. The goal of the designer must be to allow the user to communicate with the site as effortlessly as possible.

Also, consistency must be maintained throughout the course of the entire website to be designed. The audience should not be bombarded with an assortment of different design ideas for web pages, all fit into one website. This again confuses the user, and he might believe himself to be lost. That is why, a single theme for the entire site is important. One, or maximum two font types and sizes must be selected for the whole site and it should be used consistently. Colours should also stick to a particular scheme, whether it is for the font, for the captions or the navigation.

It is indeed fun to experiment with flash and it would be fantastic to create a flash enabled site, but again, usability must be kept in mind. A site with flash-work in it will always take time to download, and it might just bore the user. Thus, a designer must stick to using a static html, and refrain from using flash unless absolutely necessary.

Another way to set a friendly and trustworthy tone with the user is to allow a skip option. This is for those pages that only provide extra information or advertisements and would take a lot of time to download. This is usually the case with the introductory pages. Thus, if the user is allowed to skip this page, it immediately creates a good image for the site.

Other ways by which, a site can be both simple and attractive to the common audience, is by easy navigation. Navigation must be boldly placed for the audience to consider and thus explore the site further. Graphics or pictorial representations however, cannot always be used. They do not always make sense to the audience. Thus a textual explanation of the navigation must be given to make the site more user friendly.

Other ways by which a site can be made user friendly, is by making sure that an easy and bold way to get back to the home page is mentioned. The audience getting lost in the website is not a very happy thought.

Accessibility is another important feature to be given much consideration. It is becoming increasingly important for sites to be easily accessible on a search engine. This is especially true for educational sites and other governmental sites.