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Webpage designing tips and more
By
Staff
Designing a web
page is not as difficult as it seems. However,
there are several key things to remember when
designing your own web pages. If you know HTML
(hypertext markup language) you can write your
own code for web pages and specify content,
color, font size etc. in the code. You can
control the look of the pages this way. If on
the other hand, you are going to create your
pages using a software package or web page
building tools your selection may be limited.
Either way, the first thing that you need to do
is document a plan of action.
Defining Your
Requirements
Before you even
begin to create your web pages you need to do
some planning. You need to consider their
appearance, content, placement of graphics,
tables or keywords. The best way to do this is
to put your ideas down on paper. Plan for all
your requirements and document them. You may
have multiple pages of the plan each unique but
showing the sequence of pages which makes it
easier to link them later on. Once you complete
this process you will be able to get a good idea
of how your pages will turn out.
Know Your Audience
Writers learn
early on to “know their audience” before they
write. This is because they need to make sure
that their topic is of interest to a particular
group. The same holds true for web page
creation. You need to keep in mind “who” you are
trying to reach before you create your pages.
For instance, you wouldn’t create web pages that
had to do with aquariums and expect to target an
audience of carpenters. Every aspect of creating
your website will come from defining who your
audience will be.
Accessibility/Navigation
One of the biggest
frustrations for people who visit your site is
not being able to find what they want. They want
easy access to other pages on your site. You
need to make sure that you give them the
accessibility that they want or they will leave.
Ease of use has to be a priority when creating
web pages. People need to be able to access
information as quickly as possible. It is also
important to keep a “home page” link on every
page so that your visitors can always get back
to their starting point.
Speed
The content of
your web page has as much to do with how fast
your pages appear on screen (load), as does how
fast the Internet connection is. If you load
your web pages with too many graphics or files
that are too large in size, you will literally
bring your pages to a loading speed that is
slower that a turtle crossing a street.
Font/color &
Background color
When
choosing colors for the fonts and background of
your web pages, you need to consider your
audience again. Use colors that will appeal to
them on an emotional level. Determine the colors
that you think would best be suited to them. For
instance, if your site is targeting new mothers,
then you may want to consider
pastel colors of
pink, blue and purple. These are colors that
will attract them. Once you know your target
audience, think about them as a whole and try to
figure out what colors would best be associated
with them.
Fonts Sizes &
Types
Be selective when
choosing the size font and type when creating
the content of your web pages. Don’t use huge
fonts, all capital letters or bold type
throughout the pages. The most popular and the
easiest on the eyes are Arial, Serif or Times
New Roman. The Serif font works better for
smaller text while Arial and Times New Roman
work better with larger text such as headlines.
You will need to be careful when mixing fonts;
it’s all right to do it, but beware of the
different viewing effects this will have. Arial
and Times New Roman also work very well with all
browser types, while Serif will not. Use bold
fonts for headers and to highlight important
words. Use colored text sparingly and only when
you want to achieve and want to achieve a
response from your viewer. Never use Italics in
your text, they don’t view well and have no
value. Use bullet points to get to the point and
add drama to your text.
Headlines
The other single
most important thing that you need to make sure
that you have is “attention getting” headlines.
This is your opportunity to grab the attention
of your visitors and entice them to read on. No
one will read anything else that you have on
your page if the headline doesn’t catch the
attention of your viewer. Put some thought into
creating the perfect headline that directly
relates to your what your site is all about.
Keep them brief and to the point, but make sure
it has the power to trigger excitement.
Graphic layout
When placing
graphics on your web pages make sure that the
files are either a GIF (graphic Interchange
Format) or a JPEG (joint photographic experts
group) file. A GIF file is compressed and
displays graphics independent of the hardware or
the screen where it is displayed. When putting
shapes, lines, backgrounds, buttons, or any
graphic that has only a few colors, a GIF file
is best. A JPEG file compresses full color
images. JPEG files are best suited for pictures.
Be careful of the size of your GIF or JPEG
files, the larger the size, the slower your web
pages will load.
Closing
Designing web
pages can be as simple or complex as you make
it. If you remember to start with a documented
plan defining your requirements and target your
audience correctly, everything will fall into
place.
Building Your Web Page
The most important thing that
you need to do after you select the
software/tools that you will use to create your
web pages is to take sufficient time to plan
your pages. Poor planning in the beginning will
result in poor quality web pages. You need to
design your web page layout on paper first so
you can see the format and content ahead of
time. It will save a lot of time and revisions
if you know before hand what you want your web
pages to look like.
Make a list of each type of page
that you want. For instance: Home page, resume
page, picture page, business page and so on.
Also make a list of what you would like the
content of each to look like. Once your pages
are created, you will need to consider
“publishing” them to the Internet. After all
what good is all your hard work, if no one else
gets to see it.
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