One of the first things I commonly see in an entry-level designer is enthusiasm for crazy fonts, color combinations, and overly busy backgrounds. If a 20/20 vision reader has to slowly scan or squint to read your work, how accessible must that page be for those with poorer vision, or partial color-blindness?

With that said stick to your san-serif fonts for web materials. Times types (anything with “tails” in their typeface) were originally derived from print, and they are best used for just that. Studies show that fonts like Helvetica, Arial, Verdena etc. communicate a professional and credible tone to a reader. With that said, unless you’re trying to pull off the newspaper/magazine feel on the web, stick to san-serif fonts.

When a web designer is starting to get the hang of css, cms, flash and/or xhtml application based web development software, they often find it tempting to jam as much cool content as possible. This is understandable since the first thing you want to do when you find a cool new script or widget is try it out and show it off, however when you bog down your website with tons of meaningless features it detracts from the overall objective of the website much of the time. Whoever may be visiting your website may be confused by the overall clutter of the website, and in-turn may end up being detracted from it! Below I’ve put together just a few design principles I notice very often when surfing the web, as well as reviewing client pre-Trident webpages.

Who are you, really? And why should I trust you? Without face-to-face contact or a trusted middle-man that’s vouched for you, visitors to your web site often have these two questions paramount in their minds when considering doing business with you. Use these five elements to boost your perceived trustworthiness and coax possible customers to step forward and buy.

Contact information

This is the easiest credibility booster to implement. Yet amazingly, many businesses ignore the power of simply stating where they’re located on the planet and providing a telephone number and email address. Without real-world ways to contact you, some visitors will wonder whether you have something to hide and whether you can be relied on to deliver the goods. With contact information, you come across as legitimate and more reliable.