Web design tips and guidelines

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Web Design 101

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Web Design Tips;
Free web site design tips to get you started right

When designing your web site you want to stick with some basic rules. These web design tips make web surfing easier for your visitors a lot more pleasant. and if you are selling something it will increase your sales.

Web page design tip #1
Design your web site for your clients or visitors.

You should know what they are looking for before you ever write one word for your page. Do keyword searches and forum searches. Cater to people who are actively looking for something already. Find out what they are looking for and give it to them.

They are not looking for fancy dancing graphics and cool flash designs. They are looking for information. So make your site attractive to them buy adding information that they are looking for.

Web page design tip #2
Make your web site easy to read

Your web site should be very easy to read. It is already not pleasant to read on a monitor and that can be made worse by bad font and color choices for your text. Choose your text and background colors very carefully. Use black text on white backgrounds whenever possible, this combination the highest contrast and makes reading easier. Stay clear of backgrounds that obscure your text Align your headline text in the center and your body copy to the left or justified to both left and right like a newspaper. Chose 8-12 pt fonts for your body text anything smaller tends to be too difficult to read and larger fonts can appear rude and loud. It is internet standard that all capitalized letters are interpreted as shouting.

Web page design tip #3
Your web site should be easy to navigate

Hyperlinks should be obvious to your visitors. You can use either graphic images, such as buttons and tabs, or text links. Which ever you use make sure they are clearly labeled and accurately describes what lies beyond. Use fonts that are easy to read (no gothic fonts).

I recommend using standard link colors in your text whenever possible. Your links should be familiar to your visitor. Blue text that is underlined usually indicates an unvisited link and maroon text indicates a visited link. If you decide not to use the internet standard blue and maroon colors make sure your links stand out in some other familiar way. Underlined text is usually indicative of a link. So at a minimum underline your links.You can try bold face or other font styles. I personally would not risk losing a sale by disguising my order link with non-standard link colors and styles.

Make sure not to abandon any web pages. Check to make sure that all of your pages have a link back to your main page. If a visitor comes through from a search engine to a page on your site they should be able to find their way to your home page in one easy click.

Web page design tip #4
Make your web site easy to find

But only if you want to make money. If you designed your site for your friends than don't worry about his part. The most common ways to promote a web site online is through search engines, directories, award sites, e-zines and links from other web sites. Offline advertising is the same as it's been for years print ads, radio, television, brochures, word-of-mouth, etc. Once you have created a web site include it on all of your company's printed materials including business cards, letterhead, envelopes, invoices, etc.

Include your contact information on your web site in case someone needs to get back to you, someone might want to link to your web site or just verify that you are a real person and not a scam artist.

Web page design tip #5
keep your web page layout and design consistent

Consistency and coherence in any document, no matter what medium, project a professional image. So keep all graphic images and elements, typefaces, headings, and footers consistent throughout your web site. Link-colors, typefaces text colors and background colors should be consistent throughout your web pages also.

Web page design tip #6
Your web site should be quick to download

Lose all high resolution graphics, animations and mpg's (movies) these files eat up bandwidth with your server, so use them liberally if at all. Your page should download fully in the first 10 seconds or your visitor will be long gone and frustrated. If you are an artist (like me) and you have high quality pictures use thumb nails and link the thumbnail to the photo, but be sure to place a warning next to each picture informing your visitors that the file may take a while to download.

That is it for web site design tips if you do all of those things you should have a bonafide, great web site.