Most likely, your site visitors will want to see content as opposed to overwhelming design features. Stay true to your original purpose and use imagery to help you achieve that; in other words, keep design simple and make sure it communicates your message. The simpler your content, the more quickly it should load.
Offer a sitewide search option at the top of every page. This makes your website more usable, content accessible and leaves visitors fulfilled. This feature can be included with ease, and is a worthy addition to any site.
Don’t use Flash on your site. While Flash can make your website look futuristic and stylish, Flash will lag on slower computers, so not all of your website’s visitors will get the user experience that you want them to have. Don’t forget that some tablet PCs and mobile phones do not have Flash enabled, which could also ruin a site visitor’s experience, causing them to avoid your site.
You should be aware of any clashing colors when building your website. You want to make sure that your text is easily visible against your background colors. The text opted for should be dark in color, with a lighter color used for your backgrounds. If you’re not sure what will work, show it to a someone for feedback.
Most people have now heard of Photoshop, and are aware that they need this knowledge if they are going to be any good at designing websites. Dreamweaver is less popular but is easier to master and is filled with useful tools designed for webmasters.
You should know everything included in hosting service’s package. It’s important to understand what your needs are in regards to CPU, RAM, bandwidth, hard drive space and specific software needs like PHP or MySQL. You need to know exactly what you are paying for.
Many hosts have website tools available. While you can use these tools for basic design, it’s not a great idea to completely rely upon them. Work your own individuality into your website by adding your own touches beyond the basics that the host provides.
In order to evaluate your web design skills accurately, it’s a good idea to start off with small, simple websites where your successes and shortcomings will be easy to spot. Begin by making a few very simplistic pages that offer just basic text, and check out how well you do with that.
Easy navigation is critical to keeping visitors on your site. Links should be easy to find and prominently displayed. You can also make navigating your site easier with a menu. Link to the main page from every other page of the site so that visitors can easily find important information.
If you want to design websites for clients, you must learn all of the platforms available. You need to learn MySQL skills, PHP, Java, and more platforms so that you have more assistance in the future. Regardless of whether you intend to create websites for yourself or for others, being skilled in multiple areas will make you a better designer.
Make your own favicon. This tiny little graphic will make your site much more recognizable should your visitor bookmark your site. If your favicon is distinctive and memorable, the link to your site will stand out on visitors’ bookmark lists. Try making a favicon that goes with your theme and logo.
Never stop learning if you want your website design to keep growing. As soon as you figure one aspect of site design out, you should attempt to tackle another. While this will take time, it will be worth it in the end when you know enough to create site after site.
Let your friends see and use your website, to troubleshoot potential errors or bugs. Before going on to the next feature, ask an impartial observer to comment on the one you just finished. You may think that a video that is slow to load is not really a hassle, but other people may feel differently. Get opinions from the outside to keep the proper perspective.
Designing a website can be very affordable if you do it yourself. For all the tools you have, there are usually less expensive ones that will benefit you. You can get the same jobs done with open-source no-cost software, for instance, that you can do with corporate-funded for-profit programs. You can save a lot of money by using freeware or open source software.
If you are designing a very large site, you should always include search capabilities. The upper right of the main page should have a search box for users to search your whole site. FreeFind and Google both have these capabilities for a website.
When adding bulky multimedia like videos to your site, consider the different connections with which people might be accessing it. While it’s tempting to upload your multimedia at 5,000 kb/s, this speed may be too much for some people’s internet connections to handle. This means a very slow-loading video that’s going to buffer every other second.
An attractive, easy-to-use website should be your goal. A website that is easy to navigate helps visitors stay longer because they know how to find information. To avoid visitor frustration, streamline and simplify, while still presenting all needed information.
When you are making a number of pages that require the same template, the simplest way to do this is to use copy/paste. Rather than making a fresh HTML code for each page that you have, simply copy the most important part of the code, change it in certain places, and save it under a new file name. Reusing the master copy of your web page’s HTML code will make the design simpler.
Now that you’ve been exposed to the basics, you should feel confident in moving forward with a website. Because there are so many different resources available, it can sometimes be difficult to know where to, or even how to, get started. The above advice is a safe springboard for anyone with web design aspirations.
