A Little Bit About Web Design
Many people out there think that web design is really hard. After all, there are thousands of programs out there to create web pages and millions of people going to expensive colleges every year just to learn all about web sites! However, things are not nearly as hard as you would think.
Before you start working on the pretty part of the site, you need to work on your site’s content. After all, people are going to want to visit your page for more than just pretty pictures! Grab a sheet of paper and make a list of the main areas that you think others will want to visit. “About me”, “home”, and “links” are usually good pages to get your started.
Once you know what you want on your web site, it is time to start organizing! People like it when it’s easy to tell what is where but do not like a flood of links to click. If several similar things go together, it usually is OK to put them on the same page. For example, “About me” could also tell your hobbies and favorite music instead of having separate pages for your music, your hobbies and you.
Once you have planned out what is going on your web page and how it is organized, it is time to design your site’s layout. The three most important things are ease of use, visibility, and compatibility.
Visibility is not about site popularity, it is about how easy it is to read things. Choose two contrasting complimentary colors for your site. Remember: the greater the difference in color shades the easier it will be to read! This is why colors like black and white work so well. Avoid using patterned backgrounds as it makes things hard to read.
People like it when a web page is easy to navigate so ease of use is important. All the important pain pages should be listed on a nice, clear menu that is featured in the same place on every single page. If you have any subpages linked off your main pages, a site map link added to the footer of each page is also a good idea.
The final thing to think about is compatibility. Your web page should be able to work on any browser and not require any sort of special software to run. This means that silverlight and flash are both poor choices for the web site as they don’t work on every browser and every operating system and can cause lag or even crashing when they do work. W3C compliant code is a good idea to have to make sure your site will work well.
As you can see, web design is not as scary as it sounds. With a little planning and care taken towards visibility, ease of use, and compatibility your web site will be just fine. Do not be afraid to try to go out there and make your site yourself, there is plenty of help out there if you get “stuck”. Have fun with your web page, the world is waiting to hear from you!
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