Whenever making a new website there must be a discussion about what its ultimate goal is supposed to be, how it would meet the expectations of the users and in what ways it would improve their experience.
Only and solely after this should you start discussions about how your website ought to be structured. Or else, you will face problems that will reflect the fact that your website is missing some core function(s) if it is not otherwise mismanaged.
By anatomy here we simply mean how the pages of your website are connected to each other and how the elements in those pages synchronize to represent a product that is coherent and well-structured. As for those specific elements and how you should approach them we have previously offered you a blog where we discussed headers, font types and scannability.
The base: navigation
Navigation and the site map are directly intertwined with aims and requirements that you might have of a given website. When you have thought through as to how a website ought to satisfy all the different criteria that you have laid down, then, and only then, will you be able to imagine a realistic navigation scheme.
If you manage to link up the different navigation chains in a tight-knit whole, then the experience of the user on the website will reflect that by how smooth and unobstructive it is. This is one of the most important factors with regard to website anatomy.
Depending on what kind of business you have you might want to vary your navigation templates. For example, if your users already know what they are looking for and what you have to offer, then the navigation must be as to the point as possible. No unnecessary pages, popups (unless they are about sales, etc.), and similar unaccommodating variables; the entire focus should shift purely to the essentials.
If, on the other hand, your website is made for an unexplored audience, in order to get them interested and curious, then your style should be much more relaxed. Less linearity, more options, an array of design elements, some links here and there, CTAs (Call to action buttons) and similar things should be stressed.
Aesthetic components: design
Concerning design - well things are much more complicated here. On the one hand you have to meet the expectations of an average user on the other hand you have to maintain a general sense of uniqueness, creativity and practicality. These latter are so difficult to conform to then in most cases an attempt at all 3 is redundant.
Still, creativity and originality remain appealing, maybe to you as well, in which case we would recommend approaching things from those perspective when dealing with specific details and not the project as a whole. That will take too much time and might complicate things in a way that is not conducive to a quick fix.
Although graphic design is a relatively new field, originality is almost always out of the question, if not in Georgia, then definitely abroad. There are simply too many websites doing all kinds of wacky stuff in order for yours to be completely novel.
Additionally, we have to mention the Hero sections, i.e. the part of the website a visitor sees immediately after entering it. That could either be your home page, a landing page or some popup; we generally advise against the latter - give the user at least a few seconds before springing it up on them. The thing to do here is to check out some possible variations and try to pick out the ones that give you the most advantages depending on the content, the design and the structure you have in mind.
Connectives: links, CTAs, forms, the search function and the menu
After you get a general picture of how your navigation ought to flow, the way these would fit into that framework becomes clearer. We will start by getting the most primitive one out of the way: forms. Here you should simply avoid unnecessary elements, vagueness and asking too much of the user.
Blogs are really useful when it comes to utilizing links across your platform. So, it is generally recommended to make use of this function - links, keywords and phrases play a huge role in terms of SEO.
CTAs are the hardest to allocate. Here, industry knowledge is paramount. Although, in a lot of cases, Georgian website use oppressive CTAs; therefore, it is generally recommended to keep a nice balance between a minimal amount of these buttons and constant popups and distractions. Keep in mind, that offering too many alternatives is bound to confuse and slow down the user.
As for the search function, here you have to be a little attentive, whatever you put in title will be front and center. For that reason it is better to choose the names of the posts and pages a bit more carefully.
The menu should be a tool that connects the users to the most important parts of your website. However, take note of the idea that whatever you think is the most important might not be so for your users. This is significant because adding one too many links to the menu is a bad idea, the visitors should quickly be able to find whatever they are looking for. As such, 10-15 options are too many. And lastly, you are not limited in terms of the menu variations themselves; there are quite a few alternative you could go for depending on what you are looking for.
GE
EN