Many people are making forays into website designing, but they really don’t understand all the ins and outs. Are you wanting to profit from your site or just design a nice site? Follow the advice outlined in the following paragraphs to help you learn about site design.
One of the biggest mistakes a newbie designer makes is not verifying how a site looks in several different browsers. This is because your website may look a certain way to you in your browser, but will look very different in another browser. Make sure you understand the popular browsers out there to design for all. You may also want to view your site using a different computer operating system to make sure that everything is compatible whether they are using Windows, Mac, or Linux.
Do not use frames; that is old school. Frames worked well in the earlier days, but there are too many flaws in the design. Using frames makes it hard for viewers to bookmark your website and can make scrolling a chore. A number of better ways exist that make it easy for users to navigate your site.
Always look for broken links prior to publishing pages on the web. Nothing is more frustrating to a visitor than clicking on a link and being taken to an error page. Check out your links manually on your own, or use a program for the scan.
Don’t overdo it with JavaScript. While it is useful in delivering a more interactive experience, it can create problems for various visitors. Not all web browsers are alike, and they are updated pretty frequently. Not everyone will upgrade to the latest version of his browser. Additionally, you need to realize many people disable the JavaScript function in their browser. If they aren’t using either or these options, then they will not be able to view your site.
If you are creating a very big website, you want to always incorporate a search function into the site. People have become accustomed to search boxes being in the upper-right corner of the page, so put it there. These should let you at least search for one term, but it’s better if it allows multiple terms. You can find search functions to use for your site on sites like Google.
When creating a website, it is important that you limit the amount of fonts you use. You must also consider how different fonts appear on the standard computer screen; smaller serif fonts (Times New Roman, for example) are somewhat hard to read. Fancy fonts may look attractive at a glance, but a closer look reveals they can be extremely annoying to read.
Allow users to cancel an action if they so choose. For example, put a “clear” button on a form, an unsubscribe link on all newsletters and a “cancel” button on orders. If your visitors feel forced into completing something they no longer want, it may leave a bad taste. They will probably avoid visiting your site in the future.
When the time comes that you must choose your webpage’s background color, be mindful of the effectiveness and conservative choice that white is. White backgrounds cause your content to be easily seen, and it gives your site a trustworthy feel and a more professional look. However, intricate background images are often difficult to pull off; more often than not they appear sloppy and distracting. Simple instead of complex is always better where backgrounds are concerned.
Older Versions
Optimize your site for older versions of Internet Explorer (IE7 and IE8). People seem to hate this browser, but many still use older versions. Since many elements are not up-to-date you will have to work around it. Read up on the so-called “box model bug” which has bothered IE users for a long time.
Design your page so that previously entered information is saved and automatically used to fill in informational boxes. Saving data from one form to another, like username or email address, is imperative. Creating “sticky”‘ information in this manner makes the whole process much more simple and smooth, and your visitors are sure to appreciate the time you save them as well.
Having read this article, you now have the basics of website development for an ecommerce site down. Try everything you learned here, but don’t stop! Keep learning in order to continue your success in web design!