You have a company and want to establish an online presence? Then you’ll need to learn what to look for when working on probably the most important aspect, the website design.
When considering a website design there is one rule of thumb that you have to have in mind, simple is better. You don’t want to get you visitors lost with a too complex layout, or with a too complex website design. It’s also very important to understand the market and how you want your company to be perceived. The design of your website will leave an impression to your visitors, make sure it’s the right one.
Your company and website will have to have a logo. As many colors as you wish can be used in the logo design but a maximum of four are recommended to make the printing on business cards easier and inexpensive.
Think if entertaining the website visitors improve the success of your website, by entertaining I mean moving objects or pictures, floating text etc. This decision depends on your audience and on the purpose of the website. There are a lot of tools that can be used on your website, the hard part is choosing the ones that fit with the audience and goal of your website. Flash is one example of a commonly misused tool, while a flash website design or layout might be cool, it might not be best for your website goals.
You’ll have to be careful when choosing the person that will design your website, you might get along a lot of designers that claim to be qualified but with no real experience, you should ask to see some examples of previous work. You should also ask your website designer about the following: possibility to manually write HTML code, if he can work with JavaScript or such languages, create and optimize META-tags for search engines, create forms and other interactive content and if he can work with websites in a secure environment. Your website might not need all these features, but any decent website designer should have these skills. Lacking any of those skills might mean that they are not sufficiently qualified.
If you want a professional looking website design you’ll have to hire a good designer that will work with you on the website from start to finish and will also be available if you’ll need changes or updates to your site in the future.
Website design, template layouts, related website information and links by Layouts.com
Source: High Quality Article Database - 365articles.com
August 15th, 2006 at 7:23 am
Get going with design grid
Importance of Grids in design
Design grid can make or mar your site precisely depending upon what you wish it to work for you. All users benefit from clear and consistent Web site design, but for some users it is critical . It is also critical for you that take design grid in its right earnest. Design grid happens to be instrumental in developing a site which is consistent, impactful and compelling.
On the web, success is often measured by how quickly and effectively you communicate your ideas to the user. Design grid undoubtedly provides one of the answers meant to serve that end.
So, are you design grid conscious in order to have a distinct edge the way your site looks like? Here are a few nuggets of wisdom and underlying considerations to leverage the potential design grid.
Design wisdom in Cyberspace
With a lack of effective design grids, spatial cues and with radically different approaches to navigation, it is far too easy to get disoriented or lost on the Web.
In the long run, there is really no place on the Web for a clever, quirky, or highfaluting design approach. Cyber wisdom holds that one has to stick with a simple design, lucid language, easy navigation applied uniformly and consistently in design Process.
What purpose does design grid serve?
Users don’t just look at information; they interact with it in novel ways. Users seek clarity, order, and trustworthiness in information sources, whether traditional paper documents or Web pages. Effective page design can provide this confidence.
The spatial organization of graphics and text on the Web page can engage readers with graphic impact, direct their attention, prioritize the information they see, and make their interactions with your Web site more enjoyable and efficient
Points to ponder
Design grid is about the tactical decisions about what your audience wants from you, what you wish to say, and how to arrange the content to best meet your audience’s needs.
The screen is smaller than a printed page
Graphic designers often create page grids that look great on their extra-large monitors. In the process they forget that most users cannot display more than about half of the typical Web page at any one time, and only 10% of Web surfers ever scroll the page.
Width of page graphics
Computer screens are typically smaller than most of the books or magazines. A very common mistake in Web design is spreading the horizontal width of your page graphics beyond the area most viewers can fit on their 14-15 inches display screens.
Design grids for HTML pages
A Web page can be almost any length, but you are provided with about 30 square inches at the top of your Web pages to capture the average reader. This is all they will see as your page loads. If all you offer is a big, slow-to-load graphic, many casual readers will leave before they ever see the rest of your Web site .
Graphic dimensions for web pages
Web page graphics should not be more than 535 pixels wide or more than about 320 pixels high, or the graphic will end up being too wide to print on letter size or A4 paper.
Design grids for Web pages
Consistency and predictability are essential attributes of any well-designed information system. The design grids must provide for the spatial relations among on-screen elements constantly shifting in response to the user’s input and system activity.
Grids bring order to the page
Current implementations of HyperText Markup Language do not allow the easy flexibility or control that graphic designers routinely expect from page layout software or multimedia authoring tools. Yet HTML can be used to create complex and highly functional information systems if it is used thoughtfully.
How to get going with design grid
No one design grid system is appropriate for all Web pages. Your first step is to establish a basic layout grid. With this graphic “backbone” you can determine how the major blocks of type and illustrations will regularly occur in your pages and set the placement and style guidelines for major screen titles, subtitles, and navigation links or buttons.
To start, gather representative examples of your text, along with some graphics, scans, or other illustrative material, and experiment with various arrangements of the elements on the page. In larger projects it isn’t possible to exactly predict how every combination of text and graphics will interact on the screen, but examine your Web layout “sketches” against both your most complex and your least complex pages.
Design grid and the rule of thirds
One easy way to develop an eye-pleasing and functional site is through a grid layout, because as Web designers switch from tables to CSS rules, grids remain an important tool to use for layout considerations Possibly the easiest way to layout a page ? whether Web or print ? is through the use of a grid system modified by the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds divides the format into three equal horizontal and vertical sections so that the viewer sees four basic points of reference.
Vertical stratification in Web pages
A Web page can be almost any length, but you’ve only got about forty-five square inches “above the fold” ? at the top of your page ? to capture the average reader, because that is all he or she will see as the page loads.
The final word
Without a firm underlying design grid, your site will be driven by the problems of the moment, and the overall design of your web system will look patchy and visually confusing.
A balanced and consistently implemented design grid will increase readers’ confidence in your site and enhance its usability.
Deepak Sharma is a Web Designer at BlueApple, a Web Design and Development Company with a well connected development infrastructure in India having a strong portfolio with global clientele and offering superior web services and solutions at competitive costs.
Source: High Quality Article Database - 365articles.com
August 13th, 2006 at 7:23 am
Do not let Flash take toll of your web site.
Flash as the latest fad in web design
The use of Flash has picked momentum in recent years and web has started to look more visually appealing and trendier than ever before. The growing acceptability of Flash to enliven web site is not only restricted to designers alone but it is increasingly finding its lovers across all displines of web technology. In sphere of web design professionals, beginners as well as considerably experienced web designers are trying their hands on Flash to showcase their creative potential and design skills.
Some pundits from the industry predict that with this kind of extensive use of Flash in web design, that day, in fair possibility, is not far off when World Wide Web will transform into some sort of web multimedia show. Here at this juncture in future Flash will lead to such a possibility where people gradually dumps HyperText Markup Language (HTML) as this is not compatible with a colorful web experience.
Whatever be the possibility of this prediction to come true, Flash is afforded a warm and cozy embrace by one and all at the moment. It remains to be seen how long this fad will continue to reign. Or people will be gradually lured to some another trend in that is yet to hit the web space?
Nonetheless, this fad has made an impressive number of web sites artistic and good looking giving opportunities to web designer to express themselves the way they have always wanted. Thanks to this technological fade which has brought yet another feature of World Wide Web: the repository of art and design in web sites.
What promotes the popularity of Flash use?
Flash helps a great deal in getting a web site which is vibrant in color, graphics, animations and sounds. There are all the more reasons why people will not be captivated in its persistent use. Even the users, on the face value, do get a great look and feel factor. The thing which is even more important in the popularity of Flash use is the fact that when web sites all around boast of charisma of design with the use of flash, people tend to follow suit.
This is understandable that why people should not refrain from giving their web site a stroke of creative touch especially when this trend is in the air. Probably this is an instance of how craze of a trend develops and how it influences collective behavior of masses; this time around it is about a bulk of techies from web design.
How does Flash design affect user’s experience and accessibility of your web site?
Undoubtedly, Flash design makes a web site look great. However, what just follows this so great component of the web site is annoying user experience. In cases where Flash has been used in extremes in a creative endeavor, user experience turns out to be profoundly terrible.
Apart form beautification aspect, Flash just does not value add to the user experience. Flash web sites take considerable time to load, and hence put users patience to put. The condition is further aggravated with the fact that still most of the users have slow Internet connection. As is pretty clear up to this point that Flash is not at all bandwidth friendly.
Worse still, since Flash files might contain not only moving images but moving text, and not all browsers are compatible to read Flash files. This is not all. This fact can also not be overlooked that not many people have got Flash player installed on their PCs.
One interesting observation on the human behavior is that the same folks who feel wow on the visual appeal of web site do not feel the same once they are there on the net as users and seeks certain information. They no longer cherish the beauty of web site, and loading time begins to be disgusting for them. Interesting enough, they switch to another web site or wish to hop off to other web site where they not are subjected to the tyranny of wait and watch.
Moreover, Flash is fundamentally used to bring in pleasing visual effects in web site. What web folks forget to realize that there is a considerable number of people who are visually disabled, and therefore, can not relish such beauty. They are annoyed by slowing down of their machines due to Flash web sites; certainly this is something web designer can take a lesson or two.
In short, Flash generated hiccups together make user experience on the Internet time consuming and a little unwholesome for information retrieval.
Flash: An enabling web tool vs. designer’s obsession
Flash web sites are a matter of excessive use of a particular technology and technology per se cannot be blamed on any counts. Like other web related tools, Flash is definitely an enabling tool where it is used in the right context and in the right measure needed.
The instances where Flash has been used with impunity smell of designer’s obsession to prove his mettle in domain of design specifics. These web sites are really wonderful in design perspective but unfortunately Flash takes a heavy toll of usability and accessibility of such sites.
Probably those who designed such sites forgot to realize that the purpose of a web site is much, much beyond mere visual pleasure. Web sites have got informative and commercial values. Mindless use of Flash renders the system slow; and given the short attention and patience span of online users, users hardly bother to tolerate waiting period, which might be irritating or even frustrating to them.
How to use Flash to your optimal advantage
It has been often seen that people tend to use Flash with a view to conceal the lack of content on their web sites. This is some thing that is based on false premises because people come to web sites looking for content or information. What’s more, this is content which pursues users to come back again to the web sites.
That is probably the reason why there is a plethora of beautiful web sites which are not faring well in terms of user retention and business statistics. Remember this inference has nothing to do with such web sites where Flash happens to be content and it is a case more of a necessity than over use of it. Say for instance, web sites which thrive on online games, jokes, maps, graphs etc.
However, this does not necessarily mean that use of Flash is solely beneficial for sites heavily dealing with games, jokes, maps, graphs etc. Its use transcends over such sites and is really helpful provided it is used in moderation and in strategic consideration.
Let’s have an idea how Flash can be used in strategic consideration so as not to hamper usability and accessibility of your web site.
- Don’t be tempted to design your web site in Flash alone. Use a good mix of HTML and Flash in a user friendly way to tap maximum traffic.
- Keep it etched in your memory that Flash can never be a substitute for the content on your site. Use Flash only to enhance the value of your content, not at all to replace it.
- Information retrieval could be a disturbing experience for your users if you display content in Flash files. Do change such practice in favor of your users.
- Optimize your Flash files to an extent which helps you serve your users better rather than drive them away unpleasantly.
A lesson in Flash
Make sure on your part that you use Flash in proportionate amounts to enliven your web site and hence Flash does not take toll of meaningful information retrieval.
Deepak Sharma is a Web Designer at BlueApple, a Web Design and Development Company with a well connected development infrastructure in India having a strong portfolio with global clientele and offering superior web services and solutions at competitive costs.
Source: High Quality Article Database - 365articles.com
