Good web design
is something that any web designer
likes to achieve and it’s not much
hard to achieve. If you stick to some
simple guideline and avoid some very
common mistakes you can easily achieve
good website with quality deign. But
for a beginner it seems tough to design
your own website and that’s why it’s
important to know what mistakes to
avoid while designing your website.
To get the answer on “how
to design your own website”
read on here I have described some
of the golden rules which should be
kept in mind while designing your
website from scratch.
Truly excellent web design skills
are born out of years of experience,
dedication and plenty of hard-learned
mistakes. Fortunately, being truly
excellent at web design is not a pre-requisite
for building a fantastic website and
the lessons learned from those mistakes
can be passed on without the hardship.
This article contains some of the
principles which I have learned the
hard way and the easy way. Each principle
is fairly obvious but so many designers
ignore them for one reason or another
and the consequence is a hard-to-use,
poor looking site that is difficult
to manage and fails to make the top
1000 in Google. If your website adheres
to the principles below it will almost
certainly be much healthier, and you
and your visitors will reap the benefits.
1. Keep Everything Obvious - Don't
Make Me Think
The book entitled Don't Make Me Think!:
A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
by Steve Krug is one of the best selling
books on the subject of web design
and usability. Personally, I think
thinking is a good thing but at the
same time I don't want to be struggling
to figure out how to submit a web
form!
Visitors to a website expect certain
conventions, breaking these is a great
way of losing visitors. People expect
to find the navigation at the top
of a page or on the left hand side.
Logos are mostly found on the top
left. Much research has been conducted
into how people view and use web pages.
The good news is that you do not to
know all of this; instead look at
how larger companies such as eBay,
Amazon, Google, Microsoft structure
their pages and the language they
use, then emulate them.
2. Limit Colors
A website using too many colors at
a time can be overwhelming to many
users and can make a website look
cheap and tacky. Any users with color
blindness or contrast perception difficulties
may even be unable to use the site.
Limiting a palette to 2 or 3 colors
will nearly always lead to a slicker
looking design and has the added bonus
of simplifying your design choices,
reducing design time.
Software like Color Wheel Pro can
greatly simplify the creation of a
pallet by showing which colors sit
well together. If you really do not
have the eye for design then software
like this provides the perfect way
of escaping monotone or badly combined
color schemes.
If your site uses blue and yellow
together or red and green then it
may present problems to anyone suffering
with color blindness. Vischeck.com
provides free software that can simulate
different types of color blindness.
3. Be Careful With Fonts
The set of fonts available to all
visitors of a website is relatively
limited. Add to that the possibility
of a user having a visual impairment
then the options become even smaller.
It is advisable to stick to fonts
such as Arial, Verdana, Courier, Times,
Geneva and Georgia. They may not be
very interesting but your content
should be more interesting than your
font and if it can't be read, what
is the point of having a site?
Black text on a white background is
far easier for the majority of people
to read than white text on a black
background. If you have large amounts
of text then a white or plane background
is far more user friendly. Always
ensure that there is a good contrast
between any text and its background.
Blue text on a blue background is
okay as long as the difference in
shade is significant.
Verdana is often cited as being the
easiest to read on the screen. Georgia
is probably the best option for a
serif font.
4. Plan for Change
If you fix the height of your page
to 600 pixels will you still be able
to add additional menu items without
completely redesigning your page?
The ability to add or remove content
from a website is fundamental to the
ongoing success of it. Having to rewrite
the entire web page or website each
time you want to make a small change
is sure fire way to kill your interest
in your own site and will negatively
impacts your overall design and usability.
Getting a good idea of how your website
is likely to grow will clarify how
best to structure your layout. For
example, a horizontal navigation is
often more restrictive than a side
navigation unless you use drop down
menus; if your navigation is likely
to grow and you hate drop down menus
then your design choice has been 99%
made for you!
Understanding how to use Cascading
Style Sheets (CSS), avoiding unconventional
layouts and complicated backgrounds
will all help enormously.
5. Be Consistent
Again, don't make your visitors think!
About how to use your site at least.
If your navigation is at the top on
your homepage, it should be at the
top on all other pages too. If your
links are colored red ensure that
the same convention is used on all
sections.
By using CSS correctly you can make
most of this happen automatically
leaving you free to concentrate on
the content.
6. Keep
it Relevant
A picture is better than a thousand
words but if the picture you took
on holiday is not relevant to your
Used Car Sales website then you should
really replace it with something which
reflects the content or mood of the
page; a photo of a car perhaps!
If you can take something off of your
web page without it adversely affecting
the message, appearance or legality
of your website you should do it without
hesitation.
Avoid the need to add images, Flash
animations or adverts just because
you have space. This wastes bandwidth
and obscures the intentions of your
website. If you absolutely must fill
the space, then exercise your imagination
to find something as relevant as possible.
Keeping your content focused will
ultimately help your search-engine
rankings.
7. Become a CSS Expert
Cascading Style Sheets should be any
web designer's best friend. CSS makes
it is possible to separate the appearance
and layout of your page from the content.
This has huge benefits when it comes
to updating and maintaining your site,
making your site accessible and making
your site easy for search engines
to read.
CSS at a first glance is very straightforward
but is definitely worth investing
in one or more books. Two great books
are: CSS the Missing Manual by David
McFarland and Bulletproof Web Design
by Dan Cederholm.
8. Avoid Complexity
Using standard layouts for your web
page will save you development time
and make your site easier to use.
Pushing the boundaries nearly always
leads to quirky behavior, cross-browser
problems, confused site visitors and
maintenance headaches. Unless you
really do like a challenge then avoid
complexity wherever possible.
Many standard layouts are freely available
online with much of the boring, repetitive
work already done for you.
The principles above all border on
common sense and are well known to
most people, yet so many sites continue
to deviate away from them and suffer
as a consequence. Following these
principles will help you keep away
from trouble, although it still doesn't
guarantee it!
These are few basic
advices on how to design your own
website that you must consider before
starting your website design.
About the
Author: Paul has worked as
a programmer and in for
over 15 years.
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