[article]

Four Internet Design Considerations Every Client Should Know

1. The Internet is a unique medium.

The Internet is not just “another place to put your brochure.” It’s a medium with its own rules, strengths, and habits. Used well, it can present your products, services, and ideas in ways that simply aren’t possible in print, TV, or radio.

A good web presence can:

• Reach people across time zones and devices — any hour, any place.
• Let visitors explore information at their own pace instead of in a fixed sequence.
• Respond to what users do in real time (search, filter, log in, customize, purchase).
• Collect feedback and data that can guide future decisions and improvements.

Tapping the true power of the Internet starts with treating it as its own medium, not as a copy of something else.

2. The Internet is not print.

While a web page can be made to look like a printed page, forcing print habits onto the web usually wastes both space and opportunity. Your father’s newspaper and your mother’s magazine followed a fixed size, fixed layout, and fixed reading order. The web does not.

On the web:

• There is no fixed page size. Screens range from small phones to ultra-wide monitors, often with multiple windows visible at once.
• Text can reflow, resize, and adapt. Users can change zoom levels, font sizes, and even default fonts.
• Content can be updated in minutes instead of months. A web page is never truly “finished.”

When you treat a website as “print on a screen,” you give up the flexibility that makes the medium powerful. When you design for the web as the web, you gain clarity, reach, and long-term adaptability.

3. The Internet is more than a brochure.

A brochure talks at people. A good website works with people.

Certainly, a site can mimic a brochure layout—but that misses what the web does best:

• Helps visitors find exactly what they need, in the order they care about.
• Offers search, filtering, FAQs, demos, calculators, and interactive examples.
• Lets customers ask questions, request quotes, schedule meetings, or complete purchases without picking up a phone.
• Adjusts content for different audiences (new visitors vs. returning clients, prospects vs. students vs. staff).

The Internet can seek out customers, attract their interest, hold their attention, and then guide them toward action — not just show them a static page. That’s the difference between “online brochure” and “working web application.”

4. The Internet is user controlled.

This is the part many clients underestimate: the user is in charge. They decide where to go, how to view your site, and which parts of it they will actually see. Your design should respect that and work with it.

Some realities of user control:

• Screen size & layout.
  There is no standard size. A visitor might use a phone in portrait, a tablet in landscape, or a desktop with your site in a narrow side column. Good design responds gracefully at different widths instead of assuming one “perfect” viewport.
• Browsers & devices.
  Visitors use a mix of Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, and in-app browsers on iOS and Android. Each has slightly different behavior. Your site should work consistently across modern browsers without relying on tricks that only one of them understands.
• Fonts, zoom, and readability.
  Users can (and do) change zoom levels and default fonts. Some have 20/20 vision and prefer small type; others need larger text to read comfortably. Your layout should hold together and remain usable as zoom changes.
• Accessibility & assistive technologies.
  Blind and low-vision users, keyboard-only users, and others with different physical needs may never see your visual layout at all. They experience your site through screen readers, text-to-speech, and other tools. Proper HTML structure, alt text, headings, landmarks, and keyboard navigation all determine how well your site serves them.
• Automation & search engines.
  Search engines, crawlers, and other automated systems “read” your site with no concern for pixel-perfect design. They care about content structure, text clarity, metadata, performance, and links. A well-structured site can be both visually appealing and machine-friendly.

In short, no one truly “controls” how their site is seen. You control the quality of the content and the robustness of the design. The user controls the rest. Good web development respects that partnership.

The proper design of a modern website involves far more considerations than traditional print, but it also offers far more opportunity: reach, flexibility, accessibility, and measurable results. Understanding these four ideas puts you far ahead in any conversation about what your site should do and how it should be built.