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Effective Web Design
by: Tasneem Rangoonwala
D.zigns dzignerwebs
The Basics
Before starting on how to
design a website effectively, how about
clearing some basic web design concepts?
Designing Effectively
Now that you know what
web design and related terms mean, lets get
down to the real thing: Designing
Effectively How to balance artistic design
with practicality and functionality.
Use of graphics and
content
Unless your website is
all about graphics, how to make them, edit
them or just a bunch of links to graphics
websites, I suggest you use graphics
sparingly, especially the flashing, twirling
kind. They not only detract readers from the
content, but they also take ages to load.
You do not want your readers to leave your
website because your graphically attractive
page does not seem to load fast enough. Then
again, too much text is boring. So mix and
match the graphics and text on your page,
having enough white space so that the page
is not plain annoying.
Layout and design
While designing, keep in
mind that poor layout and design will make
your pages unreadable and difficult to keep
your visitors on your website for long. Some
of the things that make a poor design and
layout:
Text that is too small to read
Color combinations of text and background
that make the text hard to read
Large graphic files that take forever to
load
Multiple things that blink
Unclear navigation; over complex
navigation
Paragraphs of type in all caps, bold, and
italic all at once
Graphics that don't fit on the screen
(assuming a screen of 640x460 pixels)
Animations that never stop
Complicated frames, too many frames,
unnecessary scroll bars in frames
Cluttered, not enough alignment of
elements
Some of the things that
make a webpage stand out from the crowd:
Stay away from bad design features listed
above.
Background does not interrupt the text
Navigation buttons and bars are easy to
understand and use
Good use of graphic elements (photos,
subheads, pull quotes) to break up large
areas of text
A large site has an index or site map
Link colors coordinate with page color
Every graphic link has a matching text
link
Animated graphics turn off by themselves
Pages download quickly
All pages have the
immediate visual impact within 640 x 460
pixels
Planning
Most of the time, all it
takes to design your website effectively is
a little planning. When designing a website,
it needs to be clean, uncluttered,
attractive and easy for users to read and
find what they need. Begin with a webdesign
plan:
what colors do you want
to use?
Are these colors
complimentary?
What items - text,
images, data - do you want to put in your
pages?
What layout do you want?
Look at other websites and then decide.
Follow the above steps to
get a website that speaks for itself and
your business. You can always contact me for
suggestions and webdesign projects.
About The Author
D.zigns Enterprise Solutions provides affordable and quality ERP and
Web Development Services. Tasneem is the
Web Development Co-ordinator with
D.zigns
dzignerweb@hotmail.com |
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