A website can have a number of purposes. They can be hubs for information, entertainment portals or social networks. Regardless of individual purpose, websites need a steady hand at the helm for good design. This article is a compilation of design tips that will help you along your way.
Make sure the combination of colors your site uses is attractive and makes the site easy to read. It is important for the text to be legible when set on the background color you have chosen. Dark text on a light background is the easiest for your visitor to read. Ask your friends to give you feedback on the colors you choose.
You want to ensure that your site is easily able to be scanned. Many readers online look for information that is interesting to them. Emphasized text broken into easily scannable sections can help your viewers want to return to your site. On the upper area of each page, you should place your key information. This helps make sure that visitors get the information they need in the quickest way possible.
Have a visible tagline. The tagline includes a motto or clever phrase that speaks to the purpose of your business. This allows them to quickly grasp whether or not your site has information relevant to their search.
Do your best to store any personal information of your users so that they don’t have to enter it over and over again on your site. When a visitor fills out a registration form on your website, for instance, your site should hang onto that information, and use it to fill out data fields for the visitor on subsequent interactive pages ahead of time. 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.
With large websites, it’s always best to add in good search capabilities. Place a search box visibly on your homepage that helps your visitors search single terms that may appear anywhere on your site. FreeFind and Google both distribute a search function which you can use on your site.
The beginning web designer can use Photoshop to make their website look great. Using a program that has great reviews behind it can help speed up the time it takes to create a website. Without a useful photo-editing program, you may have difficulty creating attractive, crisp content.
Make sure your website passes a test by NoScript. This is a Firefox extension you can download, and it will check your site’s readability. There are some elements (e.g. ordering products) that will not work if there is no script. For this reason, if your website is blank and has no scripts, it will not work.
As you can now see, websites have many purposes. You must understand design in order to fulfill it. Use these tips to design a site that viewers flock to.
