5 Important Rules in designing a website
There was a time in the ancient history of web design(about five years ago)when only an elite few–called webmasters–were able to build a website.
That is no longer the case. Now it's easy for non-tech people like you and me to design a website that has far better marketing tools than most tech savvy webmasters can. How is this possible?
Ten plus years of Internet marketing have shown that successful marketing websites don't pack in flash animation,news feeds,or other cool additions.
The most successful marketing sites–including those that you can design and build for yourself and your customers–are simple. The site follows the same design principles learned in the Graphic Design Success program. And as an added bonus, they can be made easily and inexpensively.
(We discuss the best tools to build future issues of websites within freelance design.)
Designing an effective marketing site does not require much expertise, but there are basic principles that increase the efficiency and profitability of the site. Here are 5 main rules for powerful web design that apply to any website.
The site should be easy to read.
This is the most important rule of web design. Choose text and background colors carefully.
You don't want to use hard-to-read text or color-blurred backgrounds. Dark text on a light background is always the best choice for readability.
Don't set the text size too small(it's hard to read)or too large(it seems to yell at site visitors). All caps also give the impression of screaming.
Keep your body's focus to the left, not the center. Middle text is best used for titles.
Font management.
Applying different fonts and fonts to your website design is not as easy as printing design. Suppose you use countless fonts. Web pages must be installed on your computer to be visible to numerous site visitors. If not, the site will look completely different than intended.
Leaf fonts Time and Times using the most common fonts already installed on your computer New Roman and sans-Serif fonts Arial, Helvetia and Abstract.
An important difference when it comes to fonts used on the web:Sans-serif fonts are often used to copy the body because they are easy to read on a computer screen.
The site should be easy to navigate.
All hyperlinks should be clear and easily recognizable. Graphics used as hyperlinks, such as buttons or tabs, should be clearly visible and easily readable.
Choose colors,backgrounds and special effects very carefully. It's more important that navigation buttons and tabs are easier to read and understand than"brilliant"effects.
Be aware of the link color of the text. (Blue text usually refers to unpublished links, and purple or maroon text usually refers to visited links.) Text links should not look like other text. You don't want people to click on the headline because they think the headline is a link.
Rule of Rule:Site visitors should be able to find what they are looking for on the site in three clicks.
Website design must be consistent throughout the site.
Like the design of a printed work,all graphic elements,fonts, headers and footers must be consistent across the site.
For example, if you use a specific blue color for the underhead, you should continue to use the same blue color throughout the site. The font,body and subject lines,background effects and special effects of the image should remain the same.
The site should be downloaded quickly.
If most of the pages are not loaded within 10 seconds your visitors will quickly lose interest in your site-most are more likely to lose interest much faster.
It is easy to assume that visitors have high-speed Internet. But there are still many places in the United States where top speed is not yet available. Therefore, fancy gizmos like flash animations significantly slow down page loading.
Make sure your photos are optimized for web use. There are only a limited number of web safe colors. It must be an image format.
Finally, keep it simple! Like Diem design, less is often more. Your only job is not to show how smart you are, but to make a deal.
Here are a few examples of sites with too many colors,poor font choices and focus. Used as a model, that can not be done.
http://www.saltinstitute.org/
http://www.wetestit.com/
http://www.sphere.bc.ca/test/sruniverse.html
http://www.globalaigs.org/
