When first diving into web design, you have to learn basic techniques well. This is the only way to ensure your ability to create sites that work well and look good. Fortunately, many resources exist to assist a novice web designer in getting started. The following tips will help any web design newbie jump right in.
Have your website prominently feature a tagline. The tagline includes a motto or clever phrase that speaks to the purpose of your business. This is important since the average user knows if they want to stay and explore a site within eight minutes.
Preserve the personal information users submit on your site safely. When visitors may be filling out multiple forms or information pieces, have the data fields retain their information, and auto-fill subsequent forms that are filled out. Creating information that is “sticky” simplifies the entire process, and visitors are certain to appreciate all the time that they have saved.
Search Engines
Don’t use frames. The information in the frames won’t show in search engines. If search engines cannot read your information, you will have a poor web ranking. When that occurs you do not get many visitors.
Be sure you’re using ALT tags for the images while you design a website. Those who are visually impaired will benefit greatly from ALT tags. If you use images as links, you can describe the link. It may also benefit your search engine rankings.
White is an effective and visually attractive background color for a website. White backgrounds cause your content to be easily seen, and it gives your site a trustworthy feel and a more professional look. Giving your site a background featuring vibrant colors or complex patterns, though, can give an unprofessional impression and reduce the clarity of your site. When choosing a background for your website, a simple background is better.
Web Browsers
Throughout the design process, it is essential to make sure your site’s designs looks and works the way you want it to on every web browser, so always check it across all common web browsers. Since each browser works a little differently, your coding could be interpreted differently on each one, and in some instances it could cause the website to not function properly. There are a number of resources that you can use to determine what popular web browsers should be tested. Test your website on all of these browsers, including the popular mobile web browsers.
Be sure you’re testing your site early and it gets tested on an often basis. It’s very important that you carry out your site’s user interaction and usability tests as early as you can in the design phase of your website. Continue to test and make improvements throughout the life of your website.
Don’t rely solely on the design tools provided by the host to build your site. It’s important to have your personality show through on your website, and the way to do this is by adding extra touches the host site doesn’t offer.
Start out with building small websites so that you can determine what areas you worked on that were good, and what areas you worked on that were not so good. Create the basic pages of a website, such as Contact Us and About Us, and add items as you go along.
Go ahead and invest into some books, that can assist you with learning how to become a successful web designer. Make sure that you start out with books that are around your web design level. You want to progress, but not skip any information along the way, so you can be great at designing websites.
You can gain insight from sites you enjoy, but try to use your own ideas when creating your site. You can improve upon ideas you’ve seen used on other websites, but you should also develop your own website designs. Following through with this step will certainly give you the best possible website design.
Have knowledgeable friends review your website, and ask them specifically to check on your use of Dreamweaver, Photoshop, HTML and the like. You will want to be sure that all the information you learned has truly been retained, the last thing you want to deal with is being in between the making of a site and then becoming lost or confused.
If you want to create a site quickly, pay attention to time management. Website includes a ton of small tasks that could make you procrastinate. Before you know it, those little tasks have piled up and have become overwhelming. Work steadily and make progress toward your goals.
Site security is always something you want to consider. Purchase a SSL certificate if you handle payments or other person information. Additionally, you should consult your website host and look for security features that will be offered with your package.
Seek out offbeat inspiration as you design your own site. Keep your eyes open when watching television program or reading magazines. You should make sure you are watching for creative ideas and you will find the inspiration you need to make your site unique for your visitors.
Try using some stock images that are free. Your wallet will thank you for this. You can find these on many different sites, and the images are often just as high-quality as the images you would be purchasing from another site. By using these images, you can use the money you save on other areas of your site design.
As you have seen, it is important to know the principles of web design if you want to make an attractive web site that works properly. Since a vast amount of information is available on the subject, it can be hard for beginners to identify the best place to start. The article listed above is a great start to the basics of proper web design.