Are you someone who wants to become a great web designer? Are you wanting to achieve many goals, but you don’t know how to properly design sites? If so, then this article is just for you, as it contains all the information you need about web page design.
Users can navigate your site easier when you have fixed-position navigation. The panel maintains position while they view the page. This is easy for the visitor and good for marketers.
You must always look at your finished websites in multiple browsers. What you see on your screen may be different from what others see. Research the different browsers that are popular and design your site accordingly. Also, have others check your site.
Pay attention to the way the different colors you use on your website interact. If the text fades into the background due to poor contrast, the text will be hard to read. In general, a light background with darker text is much clearer than the reverse situation. If you don’t know whether your color theme functions well, ask a friend or colleague to provide feedback.
Have some search element which lets visitors search your site’s content. If visitors want something specific, they will immediately scan for a search function. When you don’t have one, they are more likely to move on to another site that does. Put the search box near the top right side of the page, since that tends to be common.
Avoid using too many graphics. Graphics and images are definitely necessary to help facilitate professionalism and appeal, but they can also facilitate clutter if you’re not careful. Graphics should always be used to enhance the website, and not for decoration. Having the right amount of graphics will improve your site’s usability and reduce the clutter.
Minimize your web page’s size. Not every person using Internet has a high-speed connection, so if a site takes longer to load, they won’t be as interested in it. If the wait is too long, your visitors may give up and leave.
There are plenty of free and paid tools that exist to help you create a stunning website. These websites will help you to create elements for your site that you may not otherwise do without them, and they will help you to do it much more quickly. If the site doesn’t look good, you won’t have many visitors.
Put compelling, interesting information on your website. A great looking site is no good if it has bland, unoriginal content. When you can provide quality and useful information for your visitors, you will see those visitors coming back to the site regularly.
Pop-up windows are one feature you should avoid. They may seem helpful, but they are seen as more annoying by visitors than not. A user who is constantly closing pop-up ads is more likely to look for information on a different site without endless nuisances.
Internet Explorer
Make sure you optimize your website for older Internet Explorer versions like IE7 and IE8. Many people are still using the older versions of Internet Explorer. Unfortunately, many aspects of your site may not be compatible or displayed properly due to outdated rendering standards, so you may have to create some fixes for the elements that do not work properly. Specifically, you should get up to date about an issue that plagued IE called “box model bug”.
Choose some reference books on design principles in general, and web page design in particular. When purchasing instructional books, make an effort to pick those that start from your level of expertise.
Most people are familiar with the Adobe Photoshop program and understand the importance of mastering it for designing websites. However, many people don’t know about Dreamweaver and its potential for designers. Look into this application to find out its benefits.
Usability tests that are task based are a good tool for determining the effectiveness of a website. The purpose of these tasks is to find a piece of information that is buried somewhere on your site. A well-designed site allows the user to easily complete the task. On the flip side, any issues that arise will help guide you to making any needed changes.
Website Design
Remember, designing a website does not need to be expensive. You can find cheap or free website design tools that do the same things as expensive website design software. For instance, there is no cost open source software that can assist you in many of the sames ways as paid software. Therefore, using open-source software can save you a large amount of money.
You will design better websites if you keep learning about web page design. Once you have gained an understanding of a specific part of the website development process, you should proceed to learn the next component. While this can make building your current website more time consuming, it can be a very rewarding experience in that your newly gained knowledge will enable you to create dozens of websites quickly.
You must always keep site security in mind. When handling data for your site, such as credit cards or PayPal payments, you should purchase an SSL certificate. Also, check with the website host for other security option.
You need to be looking at the stats for your website when you are making updates. You can see who all is visiting your website and which pages they are spending time on. This can help you update material that will keep them interested and returning.
Use user-friendly tools. Links should be underlined and the color of each link should change if a user has already clicked on it. If you get the design of your site down, your visitors wills tick around longer and they’ll come back to your site again and again.
So, now that you have a better idea of website development do you feel more confident in the subject? If you don’t, peruse the article again, until you comprehend design principles firmly enough to feel confident.