Rather than hiring a company to do your website development, you can learn to do it yourself. Web designing is not that hard to master, even though it may seem so at first. Use these tips to learn about how easy it is.
Choose proper graphic for your web designs. PNGs work much better than bitmap images, which are huge. For non-photographic images, text buttons, and screen shots, use PNG or GIF. JPEGs are ideal for photographs.
Make sure that there is a site feature that will allow users to seek for specific content. If visitors are searching for something specific, they should be able to use a search box. If your site is not equipped with one, visitors may go to an alternate site. Make sure the box is on the right at the tip of the page, which is where most visitors will look first.
Keep your eyes open for website design information, you never know where you will find it. Everything is right there on the world wide web. You simply have to take the time to look.
Make sure the combination of colors your site uses is attractive and makes the site easy to read. You need to ensure that the text on your site is easily readable against your chosen background. Using a dark text color on a lighter background is generally easier to read than the opposite. Ask someone to look at your color schemes to ensure you are making the right choice.
Minimize the use of JavaScript. JavaScript is helpful in the development opportunities it provides, but some users may experience problems with it. There are many different web browsers that people use and they are constantly being updated with new features. Not everyone will upgrade to the latest version of his browser. They may also not have enabled JavaScript in their browser. These both could keep users from getting to your website.
Be aware of your background. Animated GIF backgrounds and complicated patterns on your website can be very distracting to viewers trying to absorb your content. Choose a background to work with your website, not conflict with it, and your visitors will be able to better read and understand your site, and your point of view.
Have a simple front page. Those who are shopping the web will make snap decisions about a site based off its front page. Don’t add unnecessary distractions that hide the essence of what you offer to your customer.
Regardless of how the design of your website is created aesthetically, be sure to make all of your files small. Keeping your files small will directly affect how fast your website loads. You want your website to load quickly so visitors won’t lose patience with it. Even though broadband is common these days, there are still people stuck on 56K connections. Check your site, and make sure that it can load quickly even with a slow dial-up internet connection.
Meta Tags
Meta tags that are pertinent, are one of the best ways to ensure your site attracts the right visitors. High-quality meta tags will let the search engines know what your website is about. If you do not have good meta tags that describe your site well, you are not going to attract many visitors to your site.
Prioritize your user’s needs. As a web designer, you should always focus on the viewer’s needs. This includes the ease of interaction, level of usability, accessibility, and experience of the user. These are important considerations to make. As you design your website, look at it from the end user’s perspective.
While you design your site, remember you don’t have to use all the available space on every web page. Filling every last pixel of available space can produce a cluttered effect your visitors may find overwhelming. However, by leaving some space between your site’s content, you can provide your visitors with an experience that’s more comfortable. In many ways, empty space provides value to a website.
Hosting your own site is a bad idea, even if you’ve got the money to do it. As much as is practical, the website development should be your responsibility. But arrange for it to be hosted elsewhere so that you are not tied down into focusing on the website’s security.
Test your website on all the different web browsers. Every device, browser and platform will change how your website displays, which could create a bad user experience. You should find out the top five to ten browsers. Use different browsers to test your website, even mobile web browsers.
Choose some reference books on design principles in general, and website development in particular. Be sure to start out reading books that are at your current level. You want to learn more, though you do not want to skip important information as you are learning, so that you miss something that can help you become amazing at web designing.
If you want to know the effectiveness of your site’s design, consider utilizing task-based usability tests. You want people to try and find particular information on your page or try out a specific function. A well-designed site allows the user to easily complete the task. If it isn’t, the task helps you understand how to improve your website.
While development platforms generate code for you automatically, they cannot duplicate the reliability of classic text editors. With a platform, you design the features and the platform provides the code, which can then be pasted wherever you want. However, in order to eradicate errors and create efficient websites, you should really learn how to code by hand using a generic text editor.
Many are intimidated by the coding necessary for web design. As you can tell from these tips, though, there’s really nothing to it. Just follow these tips and you should not have trouble with the design of the site.