A good webpage can be piece of art when the designer is skilled. An appealing and user-friendly site will stand out from the competition. Education is the key to cultivating strong web page design skills. Try expanding your own knowledge of website design, by using the tips that are listed below.
Graphics are important for any designer but beginners should focus only on the standard graphics on their first several builds. Remember, bitmap images are huge and usually don’t work well, PNGs work fine. You have two choices for your non-photographic images. An image using 256 colors or more works well as a PNG, GIF works for the others. Use JPEG format for all photos on your website.
Users can navigate your site easier when you have fixed-position navigation. What occurs when the navigation is fixed is the panel follows the users scrolling. In other words, it moves down the page as the user moves down the page. This offers convenience for visitors and can help marketers as well when it allows visitors to take action easily, such as signing up for promotions.
Choosing the right graphics can either make or break a website. Do not use bitmap for your images as they take up too much space. GIFs can be quite good for simple text buttons, screenshots, etc and PNGs are great for images with 256 colors and up. JPEG works best for photo images.
Does your site pass the NoScript test? The NoScript extension can be downloaded for Mozilla Firefox; doing so will allow you to be sure your site can be read. Some content, such as ordering systems for products, can’t work without scripts, but if your site is simply blank with scripts turned off, that’s bad news.
Your website needs to function properly for visitors who use any kind of browser, so be sure to test out your site for browser compatibility. A page that works well in Firefox may display improperly in Safari, Internet Explorer or Chrome. Monitor how the pages look in major browsers before taking your website live.
Set up your site so that visitors can cancel actions they initiate if they change their minds. This includes completing forms, enrolling in email newsletters and searching the site to find certain information. If visitors cannot cancel an action they are not interested in, such as providing their contact information, they will feel they do not have a choice and won’t buy anything.
Help your visitors navigate your page via fixed position navigation. This involves locking your site’s navigation panel as visitors scroll down. This is convenient for visitors and helps frequent visitors quickly find what they need.
Be certain that your website can be scanned easily. Many usability tests show that most online visitors do not read everything. They usually only scan for things that interest them. Using text that is emphasized to break it into sections that are easily scanned ensures your readers are more likely to return. Be sure important information is given top billing. This can help you make sure your visitors have a better experience since they can easily find what they’re looking for.
A good website will never require that a visitor provide the same information more than once. Ensure that personal data for each of your website’s visitors is preserved. When a user needs to enter their information multiple times to sign up for various options you give them, make it so that they don’t have to enter duplicate info from beginning to end on their own repeatedly. This “sticky” information can make the process easier and smoother for visitors and they’ll appreciate it.
Consider using free software to design you website. Oftentimes, people erroneously believe that shareware is inefficient for certain tasks. However, there are many free programs designed to help you keep your website neat and current. Just do some research and see what you can find that can help you along the way of your website design efforts.
Does your site pass the NoScript test? Firefox has a simple extension called NoScript that will perform the test. Some content, like ordering systems, will not work properly without scripts, but when your site is completely blank when scripts are turned off, then that’s not a good sign.
As previously stated, website creation can be a beautiful thing to view, but only when it’s done correctly. It is easy to see what separates the best sites from the worst ones, and now you can find out how to take your design to the next level. Utilize the tips provided in this article, and learn how to make your web designs fantastic.