Let’s face it, many creative individuals have always asked themselves, is there a better way, or at least a formula to designing a successful website? Well the answer is yes, which unfortunately for me, it’s something that I’ve had to find out the hard way. So as a small gesture of gratitude to my fellow Web Entrepreneurs and Designers that are open to learning new things, below I’ve compiled the formula I use to launching a successful website.

Now First of all, one of the major components of a successful website is for it to actually provide something that is in high-demand, or something that is very unique to your visitors (i.e. a trust worthy service, a great product, or even just excellent information). In this I can’t help you (unless you actually want to hire me as your consultant), though I can suggest that whatever you decide to do with your websites, it should be well worth the time of others. Once you know exactly what you are aiming your website at accomplishing, then, and only then, can you apply the following formula.

As I mentioned above, there is a particular formula I use which consists of several factors that play a major role in creating a successful websites. This applicable formula consists of 11 elements which in my opinion should undoubtedly be part of all your website ventures. The formula is as follows; Originality, Personality, Simplicity, Web Standards, Compatibility, Usability, Accessibility, Functionality, Communication, Technology, and last but not least, Effectiveness. Understanding this formula and how to apply it is crucial in creating a well formed and designed website. So let’s get started by describing what their individual roles and objectives are when applying them to a website. I’ve gone ahead and broken the formula into 3 easy steps below.

An efficient and quick way to remember the formula is by recalling the words, ‘FOCUS ASPECT‘ (which makes sense).

F = Functionality, O = Originality, C = Compatibility, U = Usability, S = Web Standards,

A = Accessibility, S = Simplicity, P = Personality, E = Effectiveness, C = Communication, and T = Technology.

The ‘Focus Aspect‘ formula breakdown.

Step 1, The Design

I’ve always said that presentation is everything, or at the very least the most important thing of them all, since it will undoubtedly be the first thing that persuades the consumer or visitor on many different levels. With that said, Originality, Personality, and Simplicity is what makes the overall design of your site truly stand out. If this is done correctly, it will project a sense of trust towards your visitors, resulting in strong branding and creditability which will carry your site over to becoming well known in the industry. Always remember that a mediocre presentation will always deliver mediocre results, therefore you should always strive to blow away expectations and deliver something new.

Originality - Be original with the presentation of your website and try to set your design apart from all the others in regards to uniqueness. Although it might have been influenced by an existing design, it should still be original in nature. Keep in mind that copying someone else’s design will only hinder you by fading your website into the background, merely becoming another water drop in the endless ocean of websites out there. It is also extremely frowned upon by the online community and you’ll end up with a bad reputation, so avoid it by all means. The objective of having an original design is to actually bring your site out to the foreground and truly make it an essential part or at least a strong player in the web industry in regards to top-notch design.

Personality - Make your design a “signature style”, much like an apparel designer or an architect. This is not to be confused with Originality, Personality provides your audience with an overall aesthetic essence specific to your designs. It is in other words, the feeling transmitted through your design. The graphics, text, color scheme, and content structure should include a single set style that flows throughout your site to show consistency. The style should be professional, appealing, and relevant. This should be an ongoing process, even after the site is up and functioning. A perfect example of this is Apple’s website, you can see there that everything from the icon graphics to the layout of their content flows in an extremely consistent manner.

Simplicity - Keep a minimalistic mind set when designing a website, it allows you to funnel your audiences’ attention towards your main targeted objective, whether it’s a product you’re selling, a service you’re providing, or even just great content. The concept of a minimalistic design is much like having a white room with a single chair (your target), if you introduce a person into this room they will undoubtedly sit down on that chair. Therefore cluttering up your site will only serve as obstacles for your visitors. Keep everything about your website simple and straight-forward, and make sure never to clutter your website with useless junk. If you have advertisements, which will usually only serve to overwhelm your visitors depending on what type of ads you allow, try to blend them into your content or website. Everything on your site should have it’s own place to avoid users to be confused.

Step 2, The User Experience

The users are the sole purpose of why your website exists in the first place, they are the true kings and queens of your domain and should be treated that way, so always have them as your #1 priority above all. Remember that the difference between a 5 star resort and a cheap motel, is the experience you receive while you’re there. Make their stay pleasurable, easy, relaxing, and soothing for them by all means. Without them your site is nothing, and will sadly never reach its full potential. By simply focusing on Usability, Accessibility, Functionality, Communication, and Effectiveness you will deliver an unmatched and one-of-a-kind experience for your users.

Usability - The site should be extremely user-friendly, with the interface and navigation simple and reliable. Any experimental, flash, and drop-down menus should be avoided if possible. Your overall goal is to manage creating an intuitive layout, where your visitors feel comfortable when interacting with your website. Don’t get too creative with menus or links, such as having annoying pop-up screens for external links, etc. Always keep in mind that you want all your users, from web-savvy to novice, to find it extremely easy to navigate through your site. Everything should be laid out for them in a clean and concise manner to avoid confusion.

Accessibility - Everything should be accessible through a one-click method, two clicks at the very most. Meaning that everything should be a click away to maximize overall results for you and the user’s experience. By simply following the one-click method you will make every section or page on your site easily accessible to your users, and this in turn will increase page views, targeted clicks, and return visitors. Another form of Accessibility is making your site accessible to your disabled visitors, such as the blind. So make sure that everything is in order for them as well, like Alt and Title tags on images, links, and text. This will also assist you with search engines by helping spiders index your site more effectively.

Functionality - Does it serve a purpose, or does it get in the way? Everything on your site should serve a specific purpose, even if it’s an aesthetically related purpose, it just has to be capable of serving a simplified, clear, and comprehensible purpose. If you can do without something, then take it off your site. If it degrades the functionality of your site, then it’s definitely not practical to have it on your site. Unfortunately many big website owners believe that having more is always best, and those that sadly believe in this get caught-up in the moment of having an ever-growing abundance of features, sections, pages, or components (ignorantly thinking their being Web 2.o-ish), that they lose focus of what really matters. Too many features or the wrong set combination of features can simply serve to overwhelm and confuse your users, you have to remember to keep it functional and simplified for users. You don’t want users to get frustrated to the point where they simply avoid interacting with certain parts of your site, since it’ll ultimately push users to leave the site altogether. So stick to what works and only focus on the most essential stuff, such as actually making it easy for them. Also don’t ever sacrifice functionality over design, it should be a harmonies balance of both worlds. Keep in mind that Functionality + Design = Form.

Communication - You must relay all your messages clearly throughout your entire site. The titles, links, and content should be readably, straight-forward, and relevant. Successfully communicating with your visitors will result in them always understanding where they are and what they want from your website. Also providing reliable and quick responses to correspondence, whether it’s emails or phone calls, are crucial in creating a trust-worthy bond with your visitors. Provide them with a contact form rather than just displaying your email to make it easier. Communication on a site is somewhat like road signs in a city, you have to let them know how to get where they are going quickly and efficiently - and without any confusion whatsoever.

Effectiveness - Effectiveness is how compelling and eye-catching your site is to your users, and how easy it is to find your site on the web. Now you’re probably thinking, well you can’t possible control this, but the answer is that you can. You just need to find the appropriate edge which will make visitors bookmark and share your site with others. A simple way of accomplishing this is by making your site a vital place for whatever you’re doing, whether you’re offering solid information about a particular thing or selling a product or service, make your site truly worth your visitors’ time. Effectiveness is about results, so allow your site to deliver by making it truly impacting. You can add resources such as valuable advice, reviews, or just informative articles on what you’re selling, or your services. If you are just simply providing information to your visitors, then bleed yourself onto your writing, and don’t hold back. Give your visitors a one-of-a-kind thing, and offer them something they can’t find anywhere else.

Step 3, The Back-End

What your users can’t see can hurt them, so make sure you’re on top of everything in regards to the back-end of your website. Don’t fall victim to having a slow-loading website, broken links, or worst yet, a broken or downed site. An understanding of Web Standards, Compatibility, and Technology will help you achieve a strong and fortified website, ready to tackle on the endless bombardment of daily users. Always remember that a building is only as strong as its foundation, so plan for the future and make sure it can with stand the demand of growth.

Web Standards - Follow the best website building practices when creating a website, and make sure it is valid markup. Keep the coding clean, organized, and simple so that you may benefit from it in the long-run. It will allow for you to easily modify, update, and maintain your site and will help you with any compatibility issues you may run into in the future. Always keep your coding fresh, and keep yourself informed on the most current and best adopted practices at World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). There you’ll find great information on Web Standards and much more.

Compatibility - Make your design cross-browser and multi-platform compatible to increase your reach potential. Always check your site to see if it works on a Windows PC and on a Mac, since those are the most utilized computer platforms. In regards to browsers, here’s a list of the top 5 browsers which are free to download. Also keep in mind that Flash websites are horrible in regards to compatibility. For starters, search engines can’t index the information on your site, and climbing the ranks will become a huge dilemma for you if not done right. Another reason is that not everyone has flash, and worst yet, not everyone has a fast connection so your site will load very slow for them. Overall, check your site against the most popular browsers and computer platforms to make sure that your site works and is easily accessed.

Technology - Having the right technology is crucial in building and maintaining a strong and reliable website. Therefore you should always opt for the best web building applications and services in the market. After my fair share of experiences using a vast selection of Web Hosting companies, Domain Registrars, and endless web developing software, I can honestly say that finding the right combination of services and tools is one of the most time consuming and costly objectives to accomplish. You have to be extremely careful the first time around, because you may very well choose something that doesn’t work, has horrible support, is not reliable, or it’s just inconvenient for you - and that will cost you.

Something else to keep in mind on the road of life, is that anything that is cheap will usually end up costing you more, so always invest appropriately, and smart. Now when choosing a Web Hosting company, reliability and support is very important. Currently working for me is Dreamhost, because they’ve topped all other hosting companies I’ve used in the past in regards to reliability, support, features, and affordability. So I would actually recommend trying them out, and make sure to think ahead by selecting a hosting plan that can be easily be upgraded to accommodate for growth.

Starting off strong and staying strong is the motto here, so also get yourself professional web building tools to create and maintain your website, such as Adobe’s latest Photoshop, Illustrator, and coding software. Best bet is to opt for a packaged web software deal from Adobe, most of their offers come already bundled for your convenience, such as the Creative Suite 3 Web Premium. It’s the most professionally and top-notch combination of software used in the web industry, with everything you need to create a website and more.

Also having the right equipment is ideal, since it’s an essential part of creating a website. So make sure you have a tough and high-end computer, one that won’t give up on you and can handle almost anything you can throw at it. I myself have several computers (Macs and PCs) and even more in storage just in case, but if you have to only choose one, I would suggest to check out the Apple Store and get a Mac computer. They’re trust-worthy, intuitive, and very efficient, not to mention they’re designed beautifully. They’re also capable of running Windows OS and Mac OS with the appropriate software, allowing you to get the best of both worlds. This helps with targeting website compatibility issues without having to use several computers. Overall, I would really recommend always having top-notch technology backing you up all your website ventures. It’s what holds your website together, without it, you’re website would simply fall apart.

(Additionally to this formula, I presume that you understand that there are also external factors that affect your site, such as marketing campaigns, search engine optimization, and much more, but we’ll shed light on those in different posts. This article is meant to highlight the most important factors for designing a successful website. It’s something I put together from my experience in the industry and which I use on a consistent basis. Hopefully it is adapted by others in creating a well formed website and put to good use, it’s definitely helped my out.)