Top 6 Things That Web Designers Should Know
Web designers have it pretty tough when it comes to competition. There are so many things that a successful web designer should keep in mind when designing websites. This article will provide you with several pieces of solid advice that can help you learn what a web designer should know in order to be a success.
It is important that you optimize web graphics on your website for a better loading time. Meanwhile, most people have a broadband Internet connection, there are still a few people out there who use dial-up. If you have a photograph for example, with a lot of color, save it in a JPG format to ensure quality and no color loss. However, for small images that have solid colors, choose GIF or PNG as your file format. You can significantly cut down page loading times by reducing the sizes of your image files and using images sparingly.
A solid web design is one that isn't just good eye-candy, but also provides top notch usability to visitors. Just because a website looks visually appealing, it doesn't mean it's easy to navigate. A good rule of thumb is to keep it clean and simple. A web design that is clean and simple in nature will attract more attention than one that's loaded with scripts and distracting animations. You need to keep the content and topic the main focal point, as opposed to the scripting of your website.
Know how to write your own codes. Meanwhile, there are softwares that do all of the work for you, they add extra coded junk to your scripts. This excess coding can make it a nightmare when you must manually add to your scripts or correct a mistake. HTML and CSS should both be learned if you are going to become a professional web designer.
Be certain that your web designs are compatible with most browsers. This is something that most web designers unfortunately forget. Having your web design work in three browsers is not enough. Remember, everyone has a different operating system and rarely do two people's browsers match. Use an online service such as Browsershots to help you test the usability of your website in different browsers.
Understand that most people are impatient and want instant gratification. Your web design has a few seconds to convince the visitor to stay. If the initial reaction isn't something that is pleasing, the visitor will leave. Instead of making visitors scroll down the page for the good stuff, display important information on top of your website.
Make sure that your web design's navigation is easy to use. Your navigation bar should be usable without Javascript or Flash. Not everyone's computer is able to load the navigation bar using the latter two. A good and well-thought out navigation bar loads quickly on the front page of the website and is in a highly visible location.
When it comes down to web design, your website should be well put together and it should convince visitors to stay. This article discussed some solid tips that help ensure your success as a web designer. Use what you have learned to create websites that you can be proud of!
