Article by-Jepsen Egelund
In order to make an attractive website, it is crucial to know website design essentials. There are numerous references that a web designer can utilize in order to begin learning. This article is a great example of such a reference. The following article contains the best advice for designing a webpage.
Avoid trying to add every new gadget to your website. It can be tempting to make your site look cutting edge by including every new website development option out there but it can end up turning people off. Simple will generally get the job done even better than a flashy layout.
Include a link to the homepage on every page of your site. One of the best ways to do this is to make a graphic title for your page that can be included on all pages. Web users are used to clicking on a graphic to return home so there won't be a learning curve to navigating your site.
If you believe your site may be accessed via mobile devices, you will want to keep your designs simple. The use of flash, excessive images, and complicated menus will not translate well to a mobile platform. Keep your page clean and simple, or create a specific mobile site for your users.
Incorporate a site map into your website. Site maps serve several purposes. First, they make navigation throughout your site much easier for visitors. Second, the major search engines can utilize it to index your entire site. This means your search engine optimization improves, and your website receives more exposure, giving you more profit-earning potential.
Organize your links and avoid putting too many links in one area of your site. Doing
web developer web designer can confuse visitors and make them leave your site. If you do have many low- to mid-importance links, emulate the "blogrolls" seen in many blogs and tuck them away in a column on the right side of the page.
Make sure everything is easy to locate on your website. Spend
personal website design on how everything on your site will be laid out. When content is randomly thrown on your site with little thought to the layout, you are making things harder for the people whose use of your site ensures your online success - your site visitors.
Do not use blinking, scrolling text or other animations. Also, steer clear of sounds or music that plays automatically. All of these things are distracting to users and provide nothing of value. In addition, connection speeds vary from one site visitor to the next, and everyone does not have the same speed. Those users with slower connections will resent the slow-loading elements of your site.
When you do progress through your stages of web page design and have a site that is up and running you want to make sure that it isn't cluttered with ads. People don't mind ads but they hate it when there are a lot that make it difficult to navigate through your site, and you don't want people mad.
One of the easiest ways to create additional web pages in the same category is the copy/paste function. Instead of rewriting HTML code for each new page, copy the necessary components, adjust the parts that require it and then save the results with a new filename each time you do this. You can use the template file as much as you want.
Always make sure that your site design works well on every browser. Your coding might look great in Firefox, but it could be askew in Internet Explorer. You need to find out exactly how things look in all browsers and then code in a way that leaves your site looking the same on every popular browser.
If you are not feeling confident in any area at all when you're designing a website then go ahead and ask for help from someone. You can either find help from a friend or from strangers on places like forums on the web. Just be sure you don't tackle anything without knowing what you're doing first.
Get help from a professional. There is much to learn from someone who has already mastered website creation. Through their guidance, you can design websites at a professional level.
Make sure you have a good idea about what types of pages you want to add to your website. Site design is only easy if you plan ahead thoroughly. If you need a contact page, a sales page, various landing pages, etc, make sure you add them all early on. You can always edit as needed as the site starts to take shape.
If there is something important you need to post, it should be high on the page and close to the left side. We have not only a natural instinct but are taught to read from the left side to the right side of paper and this holds true for your webpage. Don't place everything on the right to appear different or because you think it's cool.
Make sure you have a good idea about what types of pages you want to add to your website.
website layouts design is only easy if you plan ahead thoroughly. If you need a contact page, a sales page, various landing pages, etc, make sure you add them all early on. You can always edit as needed as the site starts to take shape.
Be an artist if you're a website designer. This means that you should be prepared to receive inspiration as it occurs. If you have an epiphany while you're out and about, write it down on any scrap of paper you can find. If you come up with a design idea while you are at work, call your home phone and leave a quick message describing the idea on your answering machine, so that you can refer to it later.
Make certain that your website displays well at all screen resolutions. You can do this by utilizing percentages for the width and height of the elements on your webpage, as opposed to fixed pixel dimensions. In addition, a page that displays properly at a lower resolution, will generally work well at higher resolutions. Prior to making your website public, you should test it at various resolutions to ensure that all of your visitors will have a comfortable experience.
Create webpages that are "scannable". Reading online is different than reading a newspaper or a book. By default, site visitors scan webpages, looking for anything that stands out. Make sure your pages have lists, bolded words, titles, and short blocks of text. That way, your site will "feel better" to site visitors, enticing them to stay on your site.
To summarize, you knew it would be a good idea to refresh yourself on a few web design tips or to start off by getting a good baseline knowledge on the subject. There is quite a bit of information available and ideally you were able to find this article both interesting and useful for your website.