In the digital age, having a good and functional website can help any enterprise market itself and increase sales, as well as raise overall awareness for a product or service.

It is thus vital for entrepreneurs to have a well designed and user friendly website. According to Errole Guttierez owner of web and graphic design firm 168 Media Interactive, websites must always emphasize function over form.

He shares: “One shouldn’t put something in a website if there is no function for it, because it can slow down loading time of the site.” One thing to watch out for: while things like flash media may be eye catching, they consume a lot of bandwidth and cannot be easily searched by search engines.

Instead, Guttierez recommends a minimalist approach to web design where more emphasis is placed on the quality of the content. He adds that entrepreneurs don’t necessarily have to hire people to do their web design, and says even beginners can design decent websites as long as they have technical skills. For beginners he recommends using blogging sites like Wordpress or Blogger that have a ready to use platform. For intermediate users, he recommends Joomla Content Management System (CMS) and Drupal for more advanced users.

He adds: “The content should drive the design. Make the content short and simple because people are averse to long stories on the web. Also, ensure a balance of text and photos.”

Here are his tips for designing a good website:

1) Come up with a good conceptual framework

Your concept for a website must include how you would like your website to look and feel like. Work closely with your designer to come up with a good concept that incorporates your vision for the site and its content. Ideally, the website must be visually appealing and very user friendly.

2) Focus on the design next

This is where the look and feel of the website will be determined. These days, designers can apply principles in other fields such as the rule of thirds and perspective in photography to enhance the look of the design.

3) Develop a technical infrastructure

This involves developing the technical infrastructure of the website. Here you develop the sitemap, functions, and customized features. This is also where most of the programming and encoding happens.

4) Integrate the design and framework

This is where you integrate the design and framework of the website. You need to ensure everything is in its place even if you view the site from different browsers.

5. Testing

This is where you make the Beta site and make any last minute tweaks. If your website is functional and working as you want it to, then it’s time to launch it for public consumption.