
In order to produce appealing websites that work properly, it important to have a solid understanding of standard website development principles. Beginning web designers and experienced web designers alike can gather information on designing websites from many different sources, and the following article is one of the best of these. Here are some smart tips to design better websites.
Use graphics that are right for your website. Many people no longer use use bitmap graphics because the files are large and take longer to load. Try GIF, PNG or JPEG files instead. For non-photographic graphics choose a PNG if the graphic has less than 256 colors. Otherwise, choose a GIF. JPEG is a good choice for photographic images.
Fixed navigation panels are a good way to allow your visitors to easily navigate your site. This means you need to lock the site’s panel for navigation in a place that scrolls while the visitor does. Not only do visitors find this convenient, but so do internet marketers who have calls to action they want in place.
Make sure that there is a site feature that will allow users to seek for specific content. If someone is looking for something on your site, they want to search for a box to help them search. If there isn’t one, visitors will probably leave your site rather quickly. Put the box on the right-hand top of the page.
You want to ensure that your site is easily able to be scanned. Many usability tests show that most online visitors do not read everything. They usually only scan for things that interest them. Divide your content into sections that readers can readily scan and your visitors will come back for more. Put your most vital information near the top. This helps make sure that visitors get the information they need in the quickest way possible.
Understand your subject. If you’re going to use your site to blog or something like that, you must know what you are talking about. Being unclear with customers or giving false information will drive readers away. To create a blog that draws visitors and keeps them interested, knowing what you are talking about is key.
Be sure load times for your site are good. Visitors are not going to wait around for a slow site. Reduce graphics, scripts and Flash consoles on your web page, optimize HTML and utilize SSI files.
Do not clutter your website by using every square pixel of space that you have available. If you make excessive use of pixels, your website will seem too busy and cluttered. Give your users a break by allowing space between different elements on each page. Sometimes, the value of blank space is equal to that of a website’s content.
Text Editor
You can utilize a development platform that provides you with the code for your website; however, the code generated is often not as dependable as code written yourself via text editor. Site features are designed within the platform, and then the generated code is pasted in. Even if you do use one of these editors, make sure to check your code in a text editor afterward to clean up erroneous or extraneous code.
Try and get some books which can help you be a better web designer. You don’t want to pick books about specific software versions as they’ll become outdated quickly, but style guides and even SEO information will last you a long time.
Try to begin your site with minimal content. This helps build a niche and gets them focused on whatever message you are delivering instead of spending wasted time jumping from page to page looking for what interests them. Over time, the amount of content will accumulate alongside your network traffic, which makes things less confusing for everyone.
When designing the site, ask or poll people in your specific target audience what they’d like in a website. This will help with designing your site and features too. The best way to create the site your visitors want is by soliciting their advice.
Hosting Videos
If you are considering hosting videos on a website, be sure to check with the web host to make sure that it is allowed. There are some hosts that forbid hosting videos. FLV files and other formats take a lot of space and will not load quickly. Hosting videos on YouTube is a better alternative. You need to be sure of the options available to you before moving forward.
Continually educate yourself on site design. When you are confident in your abilities to use one technique, you should then move on to mastering the next skill. It may take a longer time to build a functioning site, but you will know enough to create dozens of websites when you finally learn what you need to know.
Your computer’s copy/paste capabilities are some of your most powerful tools when you’re building a website with many very similar sub-pages. Rather than taking the time to constantly start from scratch with HTML coding, just copy existing content and re-save it with a new name. This method allows you to make countless copies of the master code.
Now that you’ve been exposed to the basics, you should feel confident in moving forward with a website. There are so many resources available that it could all seem overwhelming. You can get a head start by utilizing the insights given here.