Getting Started On Web Design
June 10th, 2010Many people hear the term “web design” and get scared. You have to be an artist with years of good programming skill to make your own web site and have it come out nicely, don’t you? Well, this is not the case! In fact, making a good web site is not that hard at all once you know what to do.
The first thing a good site has is good content. People visit web pages for what is on the page, not how the page looks. Ger out some paper and start listing things you would like on your web site. Things like “links”, “About me” and “Home” are always good starting points.
Once you know what is going to be on your site, it is time to organize it. Clump similar things together to create your main pages. For example, talking about your favorite book and your favorite band could both go under your “About me” page. Less is more as long as each main page is well-defined as people do not like having to wade through a lot of links to find what they want to know.
Once you have all your information narrowed down to a few nice pages, it’s time to design your layout. The three keys are visibility, ease of use, and compatibility. If you have those three things down, your site will be great.
Visibility means that your page is easy to read. Choose two contrasting complimentary colors for your pages. It is important to make sure the colors are very different in shades to make it easy to read. Usually light text on a dark background or dark text on a light background works the best. Also avoid using background images as it makes reading difficult.
Ease of use means that it is easy for people visiting your page to find what they want. All the main pages you came up with earlier should be clearly linked on an easy to read menu that will be in the same place on every one of your pages. If you have any sub pages, a site map linked in the footer of your web page is also a great idea.
The final thing to think about is compatibility. Your web page should be able to work on any browser and not require any sort of special software to run. This means that silverlight and flash are both poor choices for the web site as they don’t work on every browser and every operating system and can cause lag or even crashing when they do work. W3C compliant code is a good idea to have to make sure your site will work well.
As you can see, web design is not as scary as it sounds. With a little planning and care taken towards visibility, ease of use, and compatibility your web site will be just fine. Do not be afraid to try to go out there and make your site yourself, there is plenty of help out there if you get “stuck”. Have fun with your web page, the world is waiting to hear from you!
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