When you enter in to the world of the Internet, most people have a limited knowledge of what to expect. All sorts of beautiful, glamorous options are presented. Options on how the web site could be presented are quite overwhelming. As the design/developer is explaining these options they become clear. This article is a discussion on falling in to the technology trap. Rather than taking a negative approach on suggesting what not to do, it takes a positive track and makes suggestions on what to do. There will be no discussion in this article in regards to SEO (search engine optimisation) as that is a topic in itself. Probably the most important point to remember in a web design is that the vast majority of visitors to a web site will be new visitors or at best unfamiliar with the web site. For that reason alone everything possible should be kept simple. It is dangerous to assume that the world is computer and Internet literate. On the contrary there are a lot of potentials to your business out there who hate computers, but will use them as a cost and effort effective tool. If confronted with anything resembling a complication in the process they are more than likely to abandon your site and move on to the next. This does open a Pandora’s Box, how do we best present our wears to potentials simply but impressively? Not the simplest of questions to answer. Although there are a few guidelines that can help us achieve this goal. Firstly, present text to the visitor in a clear, concise summary form, until they prompt for more detail. If a visitor can gather the initial information they require quickly and without fuzz, they will be impressed. Keep your text to a minimum; reading from a screen differs greatly from reading from paper. Paper reflects light whereas a screen projects light. Your optical system manages these two differently. When you present your web page to a visitor employ a strategy on the page that will initially catch their eye but will not distract from the objective of the page. If you can hold the visitor’s attention for around 30 seconds you will have a good chance that they will stay long enough to absorb the point of the page. And that as the old salesman’s adage is “getting your foot in the door”. Many sites use a nice pretty picture in attempt to achieve this, but this does not really work. There are too many pretty pictures on the web. Try using something with a little movement, e.g. a slideshow or a flash movie clip. Use an eye catcher that is relevant to your page, framing the visitors mind set to match whatever you have to offer. The colour scheme you choose for you site should reflect your business, think carefully. What is the image you what to project, sombre and conservative, fun, or outward bound? The colour scheme should reflect the business and the expectations of your potentials. For instance if the targeted potentials are mums-to-be you would not use the more serious colour like dark greens or blues, the colour scheme would be creams, light blues and pinks along with lemon yellows. The types of colours that are associated with babies. Your colour scheme should take the best advantage of a particular potentials frame of mind. Your site navigation should be simple and easily followed and recovered from. By that I mean that when a visitor is lost, and no matter how simple it may appear to you someone will get lost, they can reach the home page without any effort. The home page navigation should always be prominent. Ideally your navigation should be that simple that no one ever gets lost. However, more and more software devices are being used that do complicate the navigation. Use these devices by all means, but limit their use. Remember not the whole world is computer and Internet literate and many get confused where others will stroll. To summarise, we have discussed several positive points that you can address when contributing to the design your web site. Do not be overwhelmed by the options that the web site designer may present you with. It is good for the designers business when he presents a past project that looks very impressive, but will it impress your potentials enough for your business objectives? Decide on the targeted audience of your web site and let the web site be as complicated or as simple as you believe your potentials can handle. Limit your text to a concise summary, feeding out the details as and when your web site visitor requests it. Your text should be readable quickly and without ambiguity, this will encourage your visitor to progress further in to you web site. Catching a visitor’s eye with a little movement will encourage them to stay long enough to absorb your web sites message. Be careful in selecting your colour scheme, it should reflect both your products or services and the expectations of your potentials. Lastly but not least, keep your navigation simple, there is no necessity for overly complicated navigation. Wishing you all success in your Internet ventures.