How Can I Make My Web Site More Attractive And User-friendly?

Try to keep pages clean and uncluttered. And use short, punchy sentences as reading a web page requires 17 per cent more effort than reading from paper.

Make your site easy to navigate and logical to use. Testing using external volunteers is a good way to flush out potential problems and barriers that might divert a visitor from their goal.

Even with broadband, users don't like waiting around for pages to download. Do what you can to make the site load as quickly as possible. Image file sizes should as far as possible be kept to around 50 kb or fewer, Watch out for pages with lots of images as the total has to be taken into account.

Remember that the web is a special medium and sentences need to be short or the point may get lost in a flood of clauses. Bear in mind that the web is international by its very nature and so colloqualisms and humour don't always travel well.