As in traditional print publishing, good website design includes visual consistency, including type styles. Consistency provides a professional appearance and encourages visitors to stay on a website by creating expectations about the structure of the text and the entire website.

Studies have found that when a website is visually inconsistent website visitors take longer to find information, are much less satisfied with the site, and tend to leave the site more quickly.

So how do you make your site more visually consistent? Follow the simple rules below and your site will be easier to use, readily convey information, and offer a better experience for all of your visitors.

Format Common Items Consistently: Ensure that the format of common items is consistent from one page to another. For example, telephone numbers should be consistently punctuated (e.g., 888-777-7997).

Format Headings Consistently: Page headings should be formatted with the font, size, and color. This is also true for sub-headings and page content (DFC makes this easy by using Cascading Style Sheets).

Use Bold Text Sparingly: Use bold text only when it is important to draw a visitors attention to a specific piece of information. Overuse of bold (or italicized, underlined, etc.) text can result in confusion and difficulty in reading.

Use Color-Coding Consistently: Use color-coding consistently through your site. If color-coding text, make sure that the user understands what the color-coding means and that the color coding has the same meaning on every page.

Follow these simple rules and you will be assured of an easily used and understood website.