Web Design

by Stephen S Alison

So what really are the principal elements of good website design? In summary the following are the main characteristics:

 Web Design Tip I – Theme-based Content

So what exactly is a Theme-based Content website? It is a site based upon a theme. Each and every page of the site focuses on a single topic that is related to that theme.

For example lets say your theme is golf . Topical pages would include:

We call each topical page a keyword focused content page. Your site could easily grow to over 150 pages, each of which focuses on a different golf-related topic. The net sum of all the information on all your pages forms the Content of your site – the first good website design element.

Web Design Tip II – Avoid Banners

Retinal studies, conducted during usability testing, have shown that Web surfers actually avoid banners and banner ads. Yes, their eyes look away, so naturally your website traffic will be low.

Web Design Tip III – Don’t Sell. PREsell

A common error made by many webmasters is …selling instead of PREselling.

People resist sales efforts, so your click through actually goes down. A visitor arrives at a website that is no more than one, big sales site. Put yourself in that visitor’s shoes for a moment. You do not see interesting and inspiring content – you see a sales effort. But you were looking for content!

If your site is basically a “bunch of sales letters”, you are not building any credibility and likability with this visitor. Your visitor ends up feeling “pitched” by just another site doing the pitching. So, just like the banner ad, your visitor is not very likely to click through to your payment link.

Web Design Tip IV – Look & Feel

Select a style that matches your theme -- choose the one that best matches the "Look & Feel" for your site's theme.

It's a good idea to preview each style in a full screen (by clicking the Preview button in each style template) before making your decision.

Start by choosing a Color Scheme for the style that you like best.

Web Design Tip V – Navigation

When you begin designing your pages, please keep in mind that your visitors may enter your website from pages other than your home page (index page). So you need to make sure you include good navigational links on every page.

You should place your navigational links together at the top, bottom, left or right side of each page. Also you should use tables to align your links neatly and maintain a balanced, organized and uniform appearance throughout your website.

 

Web Design Tip VI – Fonts

One of the most important parts of a web page is text – both text font and text size. The way in which you display the text on your web page will have a great impact on your success as it can make your page look either professional or  un professional.

When placing text within your web page, always be consistent with your choice of fonts. In other words, don't use different fonts throughout your pages. The standard fonts used on the Internet are Arial and Verdana. The standard text size is 2. Arial and Verdana are the standard simply because they are the easiest to read on a computer screen.

Headlines, which require a larger font size, are a bit different. A popular headline font used is Georgia, as it displays nicely in the slightly larger font size.

 

Web Design Tip VII – Background & Text Colors

Be selective of your background and text colors. Busy backgrounds make text difficult to read and may draw the attention away from the text. Also, always be consistent with your background theme on each page of your site.

Give some careful thought to your choice of colors, as colors affect your mood and will have an affect on your visitors as well.

Bright colors, such as yellow and orange, cause you to become more cheerful or happy. Colors such as blue and purple have a calming effect. Dark colors, such as brown and black, have a depressing effect.

A good rule of thumb is to use colors based on the type of effect you're trying to achieve. However, it's always best for your text areas to have a white background with black text.
 

Web Design Tip VIII – Printer Friendly Web Pages

Reading from a computer screen is uncomfortable at the best of times, so users may often want to print the page they're viewing. The problem is that web pages don't usually lend themselves to print.

Unless your web page width is 600 pixels or less, the chances are that your page copy will not fit in the printed page, and important information will be cropped-out.

However, limiting your web pages to a width of 600 pixels translates into sub-optimal use of your visitor's screen real estate, since the majority of web users nowadays employ screen resolutions of 800x600 or higher.

A better option is to specify your page width in percentage terms, for example: 100%. This way your web page will adapt to whatever width your printer is set up to, and your copy will not be cropped- out.

A printer-friendly page should follow these simple guidelines:

Although creating printer-friendly versions of your pages will lead to the duplication of some of your content, your visitors' user experience will be significantly enhanced.

Furthermore, you don't have to worry about taking up significant web server space and bandwidth, since your printer-friendly pages will be text-only.

Finally, you don't need to create printer-friendly versions of all your web pages, only of those which your visitors will most likely want to print, for example: articles, how-to tips, confirmation pages, instructions pages, and product specification sheets.

Make Your Own Software Program in Minutes - Even if you don't know how to write a single line of code ... Create Your Own Software Program in 30 Minutes or Your Money Back. This startling new invention (Patent Pending) creates an infinite number of high-demand software programs which you can sell royalty-free at any price.

Site5's Reseller Blowout - How would you like to get $100 off any reseller account at Site5.com? What about a month free in addition to that? Check us out now--Cpanel/WHM, Fantastico, billing system, extremely low pricing and 24/7 support with under 30 minute average response time.

Web Hosting -  Go with the best host on the net. Kiosk offers tools to help you make money online.

Host4Profit - your ecommerce solution, specializes in virtual servers webhosting, unix servers, domains, webspace, money making websites for resellers.

Website Design -  Why build JUST a Web site...when you could build a Web business?

Hospedagem de Sites: Web Site Hosting Brasil - Web Hosting, Hospedagem de Sites (Brazil): php, mysql, cgi - Find and compare reliable, cheap and specialty web hosting for Web sites in Brasil

Web Design, Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimization Company (SEO) - FifteenDegrees-North Internet marketing and Web design company based in Cambridge UK. Specialists in webpage design, internet advertising and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Philadelphia Website design - Professional and affordable Philadelphia website design, website development, hosting, information architecture.
 

Clean, Reliable, Professional Web Design & Development - Websites, client databases, intranets, extranet, intrastructure, hosting linking you with your clients. Programming in Coldfusion, PHP, Java, .NET, ASP. Hosting on Windows and Linux, over 30 years conbined knowledge.