3
What Every Web Designer Needs To Know If you have ever wanted to gain more knowledge about web page design, then you are going to want to stop all that you are doing and check out these tips. Here, you will be given fantastic advice that is written by experts in the area. This way, you will gain all of the data needed in order to be a great web designer. Avoid trying to add every new gadget to your website. It can be tempting to make your site look cutting edge by including every new website design option out there but it can end up turning people off. Simple will generally get the job done even better than a flashy layout. Test your website before it goes live. There's nothing worse then launching your new website and having to take it down right away due to bugs or other issues. Get a group of people together who are using different web browsers and computer platforms, and ask them to use a beta version of your website, writing down any issues they come across. Avoid creating user interface (UI) controls that mislead your visitors. These controls include elements, widgets and more that create an interactive experience, such as a link, drop-down list or button. You do not want to make visitors think that clicking on an underlined word or website design phrase for example, will lead to a new page if it is not actually linked to something else. When your visitors have expectations of something working a certain way and it does not, they are more likely to assume there is something wrong with your site and leave. To help your visitors be able to easily read your site, you should design it using contrasting colors. If you use colors that contrast, it makes the text stand out. If you have black text with a black background you will not be able to see the information, but if you have black text with a white background it becomes simple to read. Make sure that you use the right anchor text. The anchor text of a link should clearly describe what the visitor should expect to see when he clicks on the link. For instance, if a link leads to your widget ordering page, the anchor text might read "Order widgets." Specifically avoid using "click here" as anchor text. Be sure there are no broken links on your website. This should be done frequently, before uploading to the server. It is incredibly important to keep broken links to a minimum. If visitors encounter them often, they will disappointed and no longer come to your site. You can prevent this by frequently checking that all links still work.

What Every Web Designer Needs To Know

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: What Every Web Designer Needs To Know

What Every Web Designer Needs To Know

If you have ever wanted to gain more knowledge about web page design, then you are going to wantto stop all that you are doing and check out these tips. Here, you will be given fantastic advice thatis written by experts in the area. This way, you will gain all of the data needed in order to be a greatweb designer.

Avoid trying to add every new gadget to your website. It can be tempting to make your site lookcutting edge by including every new website design option out there but it can end up turningpeople off. Simple will generally get the job done even better than a flashy layout.

Test your website before it goes live. There's nothingworse then launching your new website and having to takeit down right away due to bugs or other issues. Get agroup of people together who are using different webbrowsers and computer platforms, and ask them to use abeta version of your website, writing down any issues they

come across.

Avoid creating user interface (UI) controls that mislead your visitors. These controls includeelements, widgets and more that create an interactive experience, such as a link, drop-down list orbutton. You do not want to make visitors think that clicking on an underlined word or website designphrase for example, will lead to a new page if it is not actually linked to something else. When yourvisitors have expectations of something working a certain way and it does not, they are more likelyto assume there is something wrong with your site and leave.

To help your visitors be able to easily read your site, you should design it using contrasting colors. Ifyou use colors that contrast, it makes the text stand out. If you have black text with a blackbackground you will not be able to see the information, but if you have black text with a whitebackground it becomes simple to read.

Make sure that you use the right anchor text. The anchor text of a link should clearly describe whatthe visitor should expect to see when he clicks on the link. For instance, if a link leads to your widgetordering page, the anchor text might read "Order widgets." Specifically avoid using "click here" asanchor text.

Be sure there are no broken links on your website. This should be done frequently, before uploadingto the server. It is incredibly important to keep broken links to a minimum. If visitors encounterthem often, they will disappointed and no longer come to your site. You can prevent this byfrequently checking that all links still work.

Page 2: What Every Web Designer Needs To Know

Use a tracking service, rather than displayingyour visitor counter for all to read. Manywebsites still display their counters, yet theydo not serve any real purpose. There aremany high quality tracking services available,and some are even free. Use these instead of

showing off how many people visit you.

Be sure your website works both with and without the "www" prefix. Some people will type this inbefore they head to your site as a force of habit, and some may not. You should make sure thatcustomers will be directed to your site either way, or you may have some confused people on yourhands.

To help you create good web pages and fix mistakes on your own, learn computer languages.Educating yourself on how a website actually works will help you quickly fix any mistakes. Knowinghow to deal with problems on your site will save you time and money, as you will not have to rely onoutside help to remedy the situation.

Include a links page for your site and use it to provide a variety of resources related to the site'spurpose. You should also include a variety of links, including links to sites that are offering backlinksto your site. If related sites link back to your site, your site ranking will move up in the rankings onsearch results pages.

Photoshop is a very effective and helpful tool when it comes to website development. Fewer peopleare familiar with the program Dreamweaver, which can be just as useful.

Development platforms create your code for you, but some of them are not as reliable as a classictext editor. With a platform, you design the page and then use the platform's generated code.However, if you would like to keep the errors to a minimum, and increase your experience, thenobtaining classic text editor would be the way forward.

If you ever run into a problem don't be afraid to ask for advice. Go ahead and consult with a friendor someone through a forum or email who you think might be willing to help you. You aren't going toget anywhere if you don't get any help, we all need it from time to time so don't feel any shame.

Always use the same type of fonts so that guest to your site don't become agitated by readingdifferent types of fonts. You want people to browse through the http://www.vuepointcreative.com/site with ease so that they can just concentrate on the material on the site and what the site has tooffer.

As an alternative to Photoshop, you could choose to use the GIMP photo editor. GIMP has practicallyevery single feature that Adobe Photoshop does; and instead of spending hundreds of dollars on aprogram and using up a few hundred MBs of program space, GIMP is 100% free and runs about35mb.

The key to succeeding with website creation is finding out as much as possible from many people.This will give you many different perspectives to take in.

Page 3: What Every Web Designer Needs To Know

Now that you have digested this great information, hopefully you have discovered something newabout web page design. This is just one article out of many possible ones, but the importance of webdesign has hopefully been stressed adequately in this one.

Include pictures of your office space and workforce, instead of using stock photos all over your site.The more your visitors feel that they know who they are giving business to, the more likely they areto choose you over your competitors. This design tip can do more than you would think to boost yourbusiness.

In the end, web design has become so simple that anyone can do it. From your 8 year old neighborwho has her own Pokemon site to my 90 year old Grandmother and the Quilting forum she set up,everyone seems to be active online. Get your company set up with its own presence and enjoy theprofits it brings!