A Quick Web Design Guide
If you are thinking about designing your own website, there are a few things you should know about web design. Read this article for some helpful web design tips.
Your knowledge will determine what kind of site you can create. HTML is the easiest language to learn but it will not allow you to create interactive websites and you will be limited to very simple designs. If you want to create a more complex site, you need to learn other languages such as Java script or Flash. Learning these languages can take up to a few years. You should plan on putting a simple website online while you learn more about web design.
The best way to draw attention to your content is to create a simple design that puts your important elements in places where they will be noticed. Do not use vivid colors or moving elements to draw attention to your content. These methods are very distracting and will not make your site look professional. Divide your pages in different blocks, including a header for your titles, a text block for your articles or product descriptions and a menu to help visitors find important pages. You can add a footer if you want more site-wide links.
Optimize your design so search engine spiders can index your content easily. An optimized design should be clean, concise and free of any bugs. You also need to avoid using element search engine spiders cannot read. This includes pictures, Java script and Flash content. Integrating these elements in your content is fine if you describe them with keywords but you should not use these elements for your design, for instance, by setting a picture as a background for your site.
Keep in mind that all users will not see your site under the same resolution or with the same browser. You can avoid issue by not choosing any set values for your design. Use percentages to determine the size of your elements and use HTML tags such as h1 or h2 and normal to indicate the font size you wish to use. A flexible design will be able to adapt to different resolutions and even to smaller devices such as mobiles and tablets.
Update your design regularly. Once your site is online, you will be able to get more feedback from your visitors and you might notice some issues yourself. Look for ways to make your site easier to navigate, for instance, by placing a banner with a link to your most popular product on your homepage or by adding a search bar. Making frequent changes to your design is perfectly fine as long as you do not completely transform your site and make it hard to recognize for your customers.
Web design can be a lot of fun once you are comfortable with a language. Give yourself enough time to master HTML or another language, develop your site one page at a time and take the time to test it extensively.
