What makes a good website?

[Ryan Fitton]

Hi, I was justwondering what all you lot thinks a good website is.

[Birmingham]

a good website is a useful website. a perfectly good one is one that benefits and does not harm, is accessible to as many people as possible,...etc.

what do you think makes a very good website, ryan?

[Ryan Fitton]

I deinetly agree with you, a good website is one that you can trust and is available to many peaple, etc.

[Twey]

Standards compliance, accessible design, usability, features.

[HAPPYBLUECHICKEN]

Hi, I was justwondering what all you lot thinks a good website is.

BEING AT THE TOP OF A LIST, OF WEDSITE SEARCH'S,LIKE GOOGLE OR MSN SITE SEARCH.P.S IS THIS SMILE'LY FACE SUPPOST TO BE RED OR PURPLE?

[boogyman]

Content above all is what makes a good website. While

Standards compliance, accessible design, usability, features.

all greatly enhance a users experience in a website, the actual content is what drives any given site, and in most circumstances :confused if a site has good content, other imperfections can be overlooked

but after content I would have to agree with Twey. I wouldn't put it in that order, but they also tie into one another so much it is hard to put it into any order.

Accessibility of a site depends on Standards, which in turn add to the usability, which is the ability of a complete stranger to navigate around the site without / very little hesitation about where he/she can find something / aka content.

BEING AT THE TOP OF A LIST, OF WEDSITE SEARCH'S,LIKE GOOGLE OR MSN SITE SEARCH.P.S IS THIS SMILE'LY FACE SUPPOST TO BE RED OR PURPLE?

being indexed highly doesn't mean the site is "good" persay, and incorrect / excessive use of meta tags can land any site at the top of a search engine.

[Twey]

Yes, you're right. I was thinking more in terms of the website design itself rather than the content available on it, but of course the content is very important.

BEING AT THE TOP OF A LIST, OF WEDSITE SEARCH'S,LIKE GOOGLE OR MSN SITE SEARCH.P.S IS THIS SMILE'LY FACE SUPPOST TO BE RED OR PURPLE?

AS F'AR AS I KN'OW ITJ MENT TO BE BLOO!

[techno_race]

WH'ICH SMILE'Y?THE OR?W'E NEET TO KN'NO!THANK YOO IF YO'O TEL'LL UD,WE NEED TO K'NOW.I'S BLOO AN IS A REDD'DDISH-POORPUL.

[djr33]

A good website is one that people like to go to, or, rather, serves its purpose.
In most cases, the purpose is attracting visitors, though this is not exactly the case with many sites for a product/person/service/company. With these sites, they don't necessarily aim to attract many visitors, but rather try to have a site that will demonstrate how 'good' what they are selling/promoting is.

For a movie website, I'd expect some graphics, a trailer, and some info about the cast/crew/production.

For a company site, I'd like to know what their product is, why it's so cool, and why I'd like to buy it.

Etc.

A good website is also based on whether people can access/understand/view it.
Standards, common-sense readability practices (no yellow text on white backgrounds, etc.), logical/easy organization, etc. will help here.



Simply put, what should your site do? Why did you make your site?
...does it do that?



Additionally, remember that content is what you need. A great layout pretending to have a point won't do any good. You need stuff that people want. The end. Then you can work hard to make a good site, too, but the most important thing is content so there is some point to the website.