The Goal

The goal of good web design is to produce a web site that is aesthetically pleasing, immediately recognizable (i.e., branded), functional, easy to use, and appropriate for its scope.

Standards

Adhering to a set of standards and best practices helps us accomplish these goals. We have developed a set—based on leading industry practice—which provides a benchmark for web design that ensures success. Factors such as browser compatibility, code readability, cascading style sheet use, and standards of content creation are included in our tried-and-true method of achieving excellence in web site development.

Look and Feel

To give a unique and immediately-recognizable look and feel to your web site, we create custom images that incorporate your logo, colours, and corporate style (i.e., your branding). A technology called "Cascading Style Sheets" is used to specify the font face, colours, and styles of the text. This ensures consistency of style throughout the site.

Content

A well-organized site allows your visitors to find the information they are looking for quickly and easily. Writing content for the web requires a strict editing style. Reading on a screen is not the same as reading your favourite novel in a comfy chair. Text should be as brief and to-the-point as possible. Good use of spacing, headings, and emphasis can improve the readability of a page. As well, the size of the text and the legibility of the text over the background is critical and, lamentably, often overlooked.

User Interface

A very important part of web design is managing the user experience. The labelling, style, and graphic elements must clearly indicate their intended meaning and function. This, along with consistency of these elements across the entire web site, will give the user the essential clues necessary for intuitive interaction. The user will find the web site friendly and easy to use when the user interface is designed properly.

Site Navigation

A cascading navigation bar, which contains links to all of the pages in your site in an hierarchical menu tree, is usually drawn either along the left-hand side or across the top of all pages. We have found this to be an efficient, consistent, and user-friendly way to organize and provide navigation for a web site.

Special Effects

Animation, Flash, interactive forms, music, and video can all be used to good effect on a web site. At Back2Front, we are familiar with all of these technologies—both how they can help, and how they can hinder. We can advise you how best to take advantage of these technologies while ensuring that the "flash" and "sizzle" does not detract from the site's purpose, professionalism, and usability.