At a minimum, novice web designers need to familiarize themselves with the fundamentals of website development in order to develop websites that are both appealing and effective. Many resources are available to get started, including this article. This article contains everything a new web designer should know, and learn more about.
Choose the right graphic formats for your site. Bitmap images usually are big and don’t work as well as PNGs. For images that are not photographs, use PNG format for over 256 colors. If under 256 colors, use GIF format. JPEGs are ideal for photographs.
If you want your site to bring in more visitors, you should ensure it’s simple to navigate. You should have the links on your site prominently displayed and easy to navigate. Good menus make navigating your site much easier. Ensure that there are links to all of your main pages, such as the home and contact pages, in a prominent location on every page.
Your site should be able to pass a NoScript test. Download and activate the NoScript extension for Firefox and see if your site is still readable. It is necessary that you pass it in order to sell items or services online as most of these functions require script or you won’t be generating revenue.
Always, always remove old or outdated information off your website. If your website is advertising a festival that occurred three months ago, your readers will just leave. Readers want to read sites that are current. Keeping old information on your site demonstrates that your site lacks attention.` Create a schedule that will help you manage information and specials, and remind you to take down useless items.
Use JavaScript only when necessary to avoid losing some potential viewers. JavaScript does open many doors when it comes to website design, but it can also close the door to your website for some visitors. Everyone uses a different web browser, and all of them have new versions released fairly regularly. They might not have the latest edition of the browser. Also, some people browse with scripting turned off. Your website may not have any functionality to offer these types of users as a result.
Make sure your first page is simple. The look of your front page will help people determine if they want to stay on your site or leave it. Explain exactly what your business specializes in.
Be careful with the color combinations you use when designing your website. You need to ensure that the text on your site is easily readable against your chosen background. It is generally agreed upon that dark text on a light background is the easiest to read. If you have doubts about your color scheme, run it by a few people and see what they think of it.
Figure out what your subject is about. If you intend to create a blog, know about your subject before you write about it. When you do not seem genuine or knowledgeable, you will quickly lose readers. The trick to a great blog is knowing your subject.
Put your user’s needs in first priority. A good website design always has the visitor’s needs in mind. Examples of this would be user interaction, accessibility, usability and the users overall experience. If they can’t find what they need then they will leave. Always look at things through the eyes or screen of the viewer.
Create CSS pages and conditional loading when designing a website. This will help with maintenance and testing down the road. Simplicity is key to success.
Do not use any type of pop-ups. It’s annoying to visit a website and get ambushed with a lot of pop-up ads. Even large, popular websites can lose visitors by mistakenly employing pop-up ads. Avoid those annoying ads to keep your customers content. As well, if your web host makes it mandatory that you have pop-up advertising, look into a new host asap. It’s not worth the annoyance level they create.
Limit your starting content on a page to little amounts when first starting out. It’s nice to have a lot of content on your site but you are trying to hook traffic and form a niche. This is done by letting your visitors grow with the site and develop a relationship as you add content.
The use of captchas can be beneficial, and they should be utilized for certain tasks such as user registration. However, you should limit their use in general, and avoid them whenever possible. This causes your viewers to believe they have to do some type of difficult problem just for viewing a webpage. Except for devoted members, most people will likely leave your site and look elsewhere.
You will gain expertise in design much more quickly if you dedicate the time to learn something new at every step. Once you master any facet of website creation, move on to another. This could slow down your site-building process, but what you learn during this whole process is invaluable, and soon you will be able to create websites without blinking an eye.
Avoid using a variety of fonts on your site. Also consider how the fonts look on a regular screen. Small serif fonts are harder to read. Many sites prefer Verdana, which is readable in many sizes and colors.
As mentioned earlier, in order to produce attractive websites that work properly, it is important to have a good knowledge of standard web page design concepts. With so many articles and a vast amount of information floating around out there, it can sometimes be grueling work to find the best starting point. You can get a head start by utilizing the insights given here.