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Wednesday, 5 December 2012

For Help With Designing Your Website, Read These Tips

By Miguel Bailey


There is a multitude of things that a website can be used for. It can be used as an information hub, a social network for communication, or a simple entertainment portal. No matter what its use, all websites require a knowledgeable webmaster so they can be designed properly. Here are a few web design tips to help you create your own website for any purpose.

Design informative error pages. Many times someone will click onto a broken link, or a link that has been moved, and receive a generic error page that confuses them. Design your error pages so that you give a visitor a reason they may have gotten that error, along with a link to your home page so that they remain on your site.

Develop a checklist of items you want your website to display. Even the best web designers out there sometimes lose ideas if they don't act on them. If you create a checklist, you can always make sure that you're putting everything you wanted on your website. Keeping it written down is also a way to brainstorm for new ideas.

Creativity is what separates ordinary sites from the extraordinary ones, so never be afraid to get a little creative. As long as you're staying on topic and are keeping the site functioning properly, you can get a little creative. People visiting your site want to see originality. They wouldn't visit your site at all if they wanted the same old stuff.

Use images wisely. Bitmap images do not tend to fare well for internet use, and some GIFs do not work well with lots of color. Image size is important as well, as larger images may make your viewers have to wait for them to download. Choose smaller images, and use them sparingly to make your site more manageable.

Never enter into a website development course unless you already understand the basics. The vast majority of people in these courses are already far ahead of you, thus the material being taught is strictly technical. There is no buffer period. You'll go from 0 to 60 instantly and will be left behind if you enter as a complete novice.

Watch how much scrolling is necessary to navigate through your site. Limit the amount of horizontal scrolling that needs to be done. It is best to eliminate it altogether. Many visitors will get put off by having to scroll horizontally and vertically to view the information that you have on your site.

Don't force users to install strange BHOs. Many tech-savvy users won't do it. Common offenders include unusual video players, image viewers, and platforms for interactive games. For most standard use cases, there is a trusted plugin, such as Windows Media Player or even Flash) that will do what you want without driving away users.

In order to be good at web design make sure that you learn as much information from different people as you can. You want to do this so that you are diverse in many different areas and are able to work on a website of any type for just about anyone.

If you're going to choose a software program to aid in the design of your website, you can save some serious cash by choosing a free, open source program. Open source programs are great not only because they're free for public use, but also because they're constantly updated and improved by users with a lot of web know-how.

As stated before in the introduction above, websites can be used for many things, such as providing information, communication, and entertainment. Creating a website for any purpose requires design knowledge. Using the tips above, you can design any website that will do anything that you want to accomplish on the Internet.




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