More than Just Lines on a Map: Best Practices for U.S Bike Routes
Broadening Your Understanding To Increase Your Web Page Design Abilities
1. Broadening Your Understanding To Increase Your Web Page
Design Abilities
Many people love to design websites, but they aren't quite sure how to organize their pages. Like
anything in life, organization is key and the same
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goes for your website. If the site is not organized then you will have frustrated visitors who cannot
find anything. Continue on to the article below for some great tips on how to best design an
organized website.
If you are designing a website, choose proper graphics. Remember, bitmap images can get quite
large and often don't work very well while PNG images work fine. For text buttons, screenshots, and
other images that are not photographs, use PNG for images with over 256 colors and GIF for images
with less. When using photos, make them JPEGs.
Look at the site you are designing in many different browsers. You have to make sure that you're
seeing your site through the eyes of all customers. This means that you need to understand which
browsers are most widely in use today, and check the site in each one. Have a friend or colleague
pull up your site in an alternate operating system to ensure their view is comparable to your own.
Don't use OnExit popups on your website. This tactic is mainly used by internet marketers who are
trying a last-ditch attempt to get a sale. Word about these kinds of popups get around, and they will
kill your reputation as a marketer. Mozilla has even taken steps to suppress the text on these
popups, citing security risks.
To help you design a site that is easy for people to read all the information, make sure the pages are
not too wide. If the pages are not too wide then they will fit on most people's computer screens. If
the page is too wide, then part of your valuable information could be left off the page.
Be sure your website works both with and without the "www" prefix. Some people will type this in
before they head to your site as a force of habit, and some may not. You should make sure that
customers will be directed to your site either way, or you may have some confused people on your
hands.
Use images wisely. Bitmap images do not tend to fare well for internet use, and some GIFs do not
work well with lots of color. Image size is important as well, as larger images may make your
viewers have to wait for them to download. Choose smaller images, and use them sparingly to make
your site more manageable.
To be updated on the new website design tricks, you should join an online forum. When joining these
message boards you meet people who usually have an understanding of all the new website
development technology. Without this new web page design technology you could end up with a site
that is completely outdated.
To help you design a good site, you need to make it so it is simple to navigate. Navigation
encompasses everything and is the backbone of your site. So construct a site that flows easily from
one area to another, otherwise your site will be very confusing and people will not visit it.
When you are creating a page that contains links, ensure your links use text content. When a link
2. uses text content, it is easy for the visitor to see and understand where they are going. If there are
links on your page without text content, they could accidentally click the link through a keyboard
shortcut.
If the design of your website needs to be mobile friendly, keep in mind that mobile devices have
smaller screens and limited bandwidth. To account for smaller screens, you should try to design your
website as a single narrow http://www.princecontracting.com/projects-capabilities/ column so that
the user only needs to navigate vertically, as opposed to both horizontally and vertically. Limited
bandwidth means that you should be extra concerned about your file sizes. You can also opt to
create a separate version of your website specifically for mobile devices.
Never bite off more than you can chew by attempting to design multiple sites at once. You should
keep things simple by only working on one site at a time. Even if you do have some web design skills,
you may get crossed up with your projects, or one of your sites may suffer neglect. Just take things
one at a time.
If you expect many people to contribute to the content of the website, incorporating a content
management system (CMS) into the design of the website might be a good idea. A CMS will make it
easier for everyone to add to and update the content without needing a high level of technical
knowledge. These systems are easy to use, and can make publishing content on the website much
more efficient.
Always check your website for broken hyperlinks. Complete your error check before uploading your
site and going live. This is necessary because when you have visitors come to your site they will find
that the information they want to see is not available anymore and if this is to happen a lot on your
site, they will leave. Check to be sure everything is working in order to avoid this.
A great web page design tip with regards to choosing your domain name is to choose a domain name
that does not contain a dash (-). Sites with dashes are often not entered when people are trying to
visit your site so try and avoid them at all cost so you don't lost any traffic.
Have a favicon created for the website you designed. Your
site can be recognized so much more when you add these
graphics on it. Your favicon will stand out on a bookmark
or favorite list. You should design the favicon so that it is
logical for your theme and logo.
Remember that web designing doesn't need to be pricey.
For each costly, popular program or tool available for website creation, there are equally useful
programs or tools that are much cheaper. Look at open source software or free trials to accomplish
the tasks you need. Looking for free software is a way to save money, not a loss of time.
You don't have to design your site alone. Web page design incorporates many areas like user
interface design, SEO, content creation, graphic design, and web programming. You should not feel
ashamed to get help in the areas you feel least comfortable. When it comes to those website design
areas that you lack expertise in, hiring a specialist or a professional company may be well worth the
cost.
3. What you've read here should have given you an idea of what you need to know to build a proper
website, so feel confident that you're ready to go! Just don't become stagnant with the learning
process; staying hungry for new information and industry developments is absolutely vital in the
tech field. If you abide by what you have learned here, then there is no reason why you cannot
succeed in designing a great website.