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Web Design Tips
Tip #1: Select a color scheme and stick to it
How many times have you visited a site and noticed that their home page is
colored in red, black and gray. You click on a link such as the about us page
and you're greeted with a yellow and green page with blue text. This sort of
inconsistent coloring is enough to deter visitors from every coming back to your
site because it screams a lack of professionalism.
Before you even start coding your site, choose two or three complementary colors
and stick with them.
The best way to choose a color scheme is to take a look at other sites that
you like: what colors do they use and how do they use them? Do they gradually
introduce the colors or are they all smack bang in the middle of the screen when
you load their home page? Here's a list of the five most used color combinations
around the web:
Red, yellow and white
Blue and white
Red, gray and white
Blue, orange and white
Yellow, gray and white
Tip #2: Design for cross browser compatibility
This is one of the most important tips. Never, ever implement either an Internet
Explorer or Netscape specific function into a site unless a closed user group,
such as a company Intranet, will only use it.
Sure, it can be tempting to implement a wonderful looking DHTML effects such as
automated iFrame scrolling, but be warned: those who don't have the latest
browser installed won't take too kindly to your inconsideration.
Tip #3: Provide an intuitive, easy to use menu navigation
Have you ever been to a site and wondered where in the world the links to the
rest of its pages are? Menu accessibility is one of the key aspects to creating
a positive usability experience for visitors to your site.
Most web sites either display a left-aligned, vertically orientated menu or a
top-aligned, horizontally orientated menu system. Surveys have shown that using
either one (or both in a complementary style) of these menu styles is guaranteed
to provide your visitors with a positive site experience because they feel
comfortable moving from page to page and don't have to run for the back button
every time they want to return to the home page.
When you're developing a new site, you should prototype at least three menu
systems and ask friends, family and work colleagues which one they would prefer
to use and why.
Tip #4: Use cascading style sheets
Cascading style sheets (CSS) allow you to develop a specific set of style
classes, which you can implement throughout your site. Style sheets can also be
used to change certain style attributes of the built-in HTML tags, such as
making the color of a "H1" tag red, making the background color of a
"td" cell yellow, etc.
Use your color scheme as discussed in tip #1 to create a variety of styles
including a bold headline, an important points style, and a default text style.
You may also want to change the default style of the anchor tag so that your
links match the color scheme of your site.
Tip #5: Open external links in a new window
One easy to implement tip that is often overlooked is making sure that any links
that don't take the visitor directly to a page on your site should be opened in
a new window by default.
When you think about it, this benefits both yourself and the visitor: they still
have your site open and are given free reign to browse the external link, with
the option to return to your site simply by closing the external sites browser
window.
To open a link in a new window, you simply need to specify the value
"_blank" for the target attribute of the links anchor tag:
Tip #6: Underline and color your hyper links
The majority of web users are in a hurry and are pressed for time in some way or
another. Our eyes only pickup on certain things, and these don't include hyper
links that look like they’re part of the body of a document. When you're
developing a new site, always make sure that your hyper links are underlined,
and preferably in a different color to the text surrounding them.
Tip #7: Optimize your images
One of the main reasons that a lot of web sites are slow is because their images
are not fully optimized. Optimizing images will decrease their file size,
resulting in less data needing to be downloaded from a site before it can be
displayed. Here are three ways to optimize your images:
- Reduce the image size: Make sure your images are as small as possible.
Crop any "white space" around the edges because it increases the
file size of the image.
- Reduce the number of colors: Many image formats including the graphical
interchange format (GIF) allow you to reduce the color depth of an image
without noticeably decreasing its visual quality. If you have an image such
as a logo, then try using a program such as PhotoShop to decrease its color
depth down from 16 bit to 8 bit. Save the image and view it in your browser.
If it still looks crisp and clean, then save the image. Notice the
difference in file size compared to the 16-bit version?
- Reduce image quality: If you're working with a Joint Photographic Experts
Group (JPEG) image, then you can reduce its file size by reducing its
quality. Using a program such as PhotoShop, you can specify the amount of
"loss" for the image, which in turn reduces its size.
Tip #8: Tell your visitors who you are and what you do straight up
This is probably the simplest tip to implement in this article. When a new
visitor comes to your site for the first time, they want to know who you are and
what you do straight up, especially if you're selling products.
On your home page, you should have a small paragraph telling them exactly who
you are and what you do. This will increase their confidence in your company and
if you have what they're after then there's a better chance that they will stick
around.
Tip #9: Use customer testimonials
A customer testimonial is simply a comment from one/more of your sites visitors
that includes some positive details of their dealings with your web site or
company. By displaying customer testimonials on your site, visitors can see that
other people have used your site/products and found them to be useful and
valuable to their needs. Customer testimonials are also one of the best ways to
increase your visitor's confidence in your site.
To display customer testimonials on your site, add a link to your menu system
named "Customer Testimonials". Link this to a page where you display
all of the testimonials you have received from your customers.
To actually collect testimonials, you can either ask some of your customers for
them directly, or setup a feed back form on your site.
Tip #10: Provide contact details on every page
One of the main sources of frustration for many web surfers is the lack of
contact details on many sites. If you run a web site that sells products, then
many people may prefer to order over the phone instead of the Internet. You
should display either a sales email address or the phone number for your sales
hot line in the top right hand corner of every page.
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