Good Web Design Mystery

What makes a good website? Is it the overall design, functionality, legibility, speed or navigation. What makes a good website is a combination of all these factors and one that cannot be totally understood, the 'X' factor as some call it. Lets look at a these points to get an idea of what would make a good website.

Overall Design
Is it visually pleasing? Does it make you cringe? A good website should look like it belongs together and do so in harmony. Imagine a 4WD with 5 inch wheels, a 16 cylinder engine with a rag top. Pretty stupid idea. Same thing applies to websites. Each element, the menu, text, links and media must all fit together into an appropriate package for the aims of the website. Websites also need to take into account the fact that not everybody has the same size screen and the site should work on a variety of common screen sizes.

Functionality
Does the website do what it needs to? Does it do too much? Is it easy to use? A website must function in a way that aides the user not just permits them use. People need to be able to search for things on sites and refine these searches. Buttons and links should be straightforward and totally functional. The functionality should also be unified. All buttons should be similar.

Legibility
Is the text readable? Are the colours distracting? A website needs to convey information or it is useless. The text content needs to be clear and not a strain to read. Titles need to be understood at a glance. Many website allow users to change font size according to personal taste so each user can make the website legible for their needs.

Speed
Does the site take a minute to load? Are there videos and animations on every page? Even with broadband becoming the norm bandwidth costs money and multimedia content still requires load time. Keep images to a reasonable size, let the user choose whether to watch a video or not. DO NOT play music on the home page and definitely DO NOT have a flash intro, I don't want to wait 30 seconds to get into the site.

Navigation
Can you get to right info fast? Is it the same throughout the site? Navigation is paramount for a good website. The user should be able to get where they want to go fast and easily. Navigation should also be clear so the user does not get confused.

X Factor
Its up to you whether you like a site or don't. Some people love black backgrounds while others like white...