Web Design Hints And Tricks
These days, almost every company has a website. They’re great for reaching new users, or for providing information to customers you already have. You can even use them to collect information, instead of polls taken by phone or mail. But it’s a common pitfall, thinking that you can just write anything and use it to attract customers. These web design tips will help you create a site that really shines.
Your website is nothing without content – that is, the actual information and services you’re trying to provide. Never skimp on this information in favor of flashy images or layout! While the visuals are very important, your website still won’t be good for your users if it’s all surface and no substance. For this reason you also want to avoid having too many advertisements – or advertisements that are obnoxious.
The type of advertisements you use is another very important factor. Avoid using flashing ads, pop-up windows, and other advertisements that will make your site run slower. Annoying ads alienate your users and make them want to stay away from your site. You should also be sensitive to people with slower connections; this means no automatically-playing music, slow-loading background images or Flash animations that you cannot skip.
Organization is a big part of all design. You want to make it so that it’s easy for users to read and navigate through your site. Plan out ahead of time all the information that you need to convey to your readers, and separate it into several related pages. And while a large splash page at the beginning of your site may seem attractive, scrap it unless it has actual, useful content – otherwise it’s just an obstacle you’re setting up for your customers before they can get to the real info.
Then there’s the issue of how easy it is to get around your site. Don’t bury all the links to other pages in the middle of large bodies of text if you can help it – though it’s fine to also have links there, you’ll want to have a menu somewhere on the page that allows users to easily move from place to place. Don’t overlook including a link to your site’s homepage! Plenty of users like being able to start at the beginning of your site, and you can’t rely on them just using their browser’s back button if they ended up in the middle through an off-site link or search engine.
Keeping your site readable is simple. Make sure the color of your text is very different from the color of your background. White backgrounds are best, and if you’re using an image, the text needs to be on a solid-colored portion or it may be unreadable. It’s also important to have your text in a column that isn’t as wide as the page, as it makes it easier for readers to move to the next line. Try reading your site in several different screen resolutions to check that it works in all of them.
Of course, for the sake of accessibility, you want users to be able to contact you. Your contact page should be easy to find, easy to read, and have only correct, up-to-date information. It’s especially helpful if a visitor can just email you straight from your site. This is necessary for websites that sell or offer goods or services, and often helpful even for informational websites. That way, your information can be corrected or updated by your users!
Of course, even after you’ve designed a website with all these tips, it will need testing. This is often easiest if you ask someone else to look over your site; what may seem just perfect to you could be confusing for someone else. Get a group with different browsers, operating systems, and computer processors to look over your website! You won’t regret it.
Want to find out more about Vancouver web design, then visit Michael Jamison’s site on how to choose the best Vancouver web designer for your needs.
categories: vancouver web design, vancouver web designer, web design, web designer, graphic design, online design
Tips from a Web Designer
I have been doing web design for about five years now. I started doing web design as a side job in college, and it turned out to be something I continued to do as a fulltime job once I graduated. Through all of this time, I have learned a great deal of lessons. The lessons I learned have been the hard way, but I?d like to share a few of them with you so you can learn some the easy way. The tips I have focus on the client; from determining what they do and don?t like to hammering out the specifications for the web site, I?ll relate to you some of the experiences I?ve had and my best practices.
My absolute best practice, which I highly recommend to every designer, is to ask the client to provide you with a document that displays a few of their favorite web sites. Underneath each URL, ask them to provide a paragraph or two of why they like the site so much. Tell them to be as specific as possible. Also, have them include any bits about the site that they actually don?t like. This document will help you greatly in crafting your design for the client. By receiving this, you are getting a glimpse at the client?s tastes; you?re seeing exactly what they like and can tailor your design to what they like.
Likewise, just as you asked for a list of sites in their industry that they like, you?ll also want to ask for a list of sites in their industry that they don?t like. Just like with the other list, you?ll also want a full description of exactly what they don?t like about the sites. I found that some of my clients don?t like drop down menus using this method. I?ve also found that some clients don?t like to have to scroll. You find out little things like this that you wouldn?t normally get from just a conversation. Having these two documents has helped me immensely.
My final best practice focuses on the navigation. The navigation is critical for the web site. If your client has put together a navigation layout be sure you thoroughly review it and understand it. You?ll have likely done many more web sites than they have, and you can provide tips and information on how to better organize their content. Once you have done this, you can help them lock down the navigation. Locking down the navigation helps you because you can then determine how to best layout the website. This helps to determine whether you want to implement a left side navigation, right side navigation, or navigation that runs across the top.
As you progress and do more and more designs, there are many other little things that you?ll come across. I hope that you?ll take the time to write a document like this that passes on this information to other web designers. Thieway we?ll all get better is by sharing our information. The tipses above are just a few that I learned in all of my time is a designer. I learned from my mistakes and it?s important that you do the same.
The Advantage Of Using Joomla Web Design
It is becoming more and more popular to use CMS when you put up a website, one of the more popular ones is Joomla web design. This is something that has a lot of benefits for the people using it. A content management system is very easy to use and even if you have very little computer knowledge you can learn quite easily how to put your content up and change it. Being able to do this yourself will of course save you a lot of money.
Even though there are lots of Joomla web design templates out on the web you can still have it made in a way that is uniquely yours. A web designer can modify and create a completely new web site while still having the CMS available for you to use when the site is made. In this way youll have a professional website that you can edit yourself.
Web design is something that is growing and expanding in the whole world. Swedish web design is known to be on the leading edge in European web design, coming up with new solutions and creative innovations. When you mix the skillfulness and creativity of a good Swedish web designer with the stability and user-friendliness of Joomla web design you will get a result that is a winner.
For sure it can make an enormous difference to your success to have a website that is inviting and well-designed. Another aspect that also is necessary is that your website is search engine optimized so that the potential customers will find their way to your site in the first place.
If you decide to let a web designer make your web site that also has a lot of knowledge about SEO you are making sure that the right people that can be potential clients actually find their way to your site.
This is of course even more essential if your business mainly is focusing on getting the clients and customers via the internet. Then you want to be sure that this is taken care of properly.
When you add all of these aspects together you have the best of it all. By having your website search engine optimized you make sure that it is found by people searching for it. With a great design you can be sure that those people actually will be more likely to enjoy your products or services and by choosing Joomla web design with user-friendly CMS you can save money by editing and putting up content yourself. A real winner!
Choosing A Professional Joomla Web Design
There are lots of different CMS (content management system) to find online today. This is very good news for all the business owners that are want to have a website designed to promote their business. To have a CMS as a base that the design is being added to gives you the great advantage of being able to actually edit your website and add content yourself. This can lower your costs a lot.
Even though there are lots of Joomla web design templates out on the web you can still have it made in a way that is uniquely yours. A web designer can modify and create a completely new web site while still having the CMS available for you to use when the site is made. In this way youll have a professional website that you can edit yourself.
Web design is something that is growing and expanding in the whole world. Swedish web design is known to be on the leading edge in European web design, coming up with new solutions and creative innovations. When you mix the skillfulness and creativity of a good Swedish web designer with the stability and user-friendliness of Joomla web design you will get a result that is a winner.
For sure it can make an enormous difference to your success to have a website that is inviting and well-designed. Another aspect that also is necessary is that your website is search engine optimized so that the potential customers will find their way to your site in the first place.
If you decide to let a web designer make your web site that also has a lot of knowledge about SEO you are making sure that the right people that can be potential clients actually find their way to your site.
This is of course even more essential if your business mainly is focusing on getting the clients and customers via the internet. Then you want to be sure that this is taken care of properly.
When you add all of these aspects together you have the best of it all. By having your website search engine optimized you make sure that it is found by people searching for it. With a great design you can be sure that those people actually will be more likely to enjoy your products or services and by choosing Joomla web design with user-friendly CMS you can save money by editing and putting up content yourself. A real winner!
Web Design Best Practices
For approximately the last eight years I have been doing web design work for various companies, organizations, people, and non-profits. Through the years I?ve learned many lessons and have become better by analyzing my past work and determining areas where I can improve not only my designs but also my interactions with clients. What I?d like to share with you today are a few best practices that I learned the hard way. Hopefully by you reading these, you will be cognizant of them and thus not have to learn them the hard way.
The first thing I would highly recommend is to ask your client to provide you with a list of 3 to 4 sites in their industry that they love. Next, you?ll want them to annotate next to each site what they love about it. Make them describe why they love it. You aren?t going to copy these web site designs, but it does help you get a good idea of what your client does and does not like. Remember, you?re always trying to please the client first, so whether you like it or not almost doesn?t matter. By getting this list from them you are helping yourself by understanding your client?s tastes.
To go along with the list of sites that they love, you?ll also want to get a list from them of sites that they don?t like that are also in their industry. Again, you?ll want an explanation of why they do not like the sites. This will help you in avoiding design elements that they do not like. This is just as important as the list of sites that they love. Ensuring that you design something that leaves out elements that they hate is important.
The next item to focus on is navigation. Navigation is particularly important because it will drive how you lay out the site. You?ll want to determine some important aspects such as how many items are on the main level of navigation, if they need drop down or pop out menus, and if they need any hot buttons. It?s important to establish the navigation early and have your client commit. Knowing this will help you decide whether to put the navigation across the top or in a sidebar.
These are just a few tips for you to think about. They certainly are not things that I was thinking about when I first started out as a designer. Now, they are some of the first things that I think about and talk to the client about. These few simple things have drastically reduced the number of revisions I?ve had to do because I already have a good idea of the client?s likes and dislikes.
