Thread: Basic Web Design Tips

Don't bother with splash pages.
A splash page is normally a pointless page people put on their websites as an introduction. The page normally contains some sort of image on with a big click here to enter sign, or sometimes people don't say anything and just hope you will click on the picture to enter their site. Splash pages are fairly pointless and it is just creating more work for your visitor as they have to click the mouse button an extra time just to see the content of your site. By removing the splash page the visitor can get to see the best parts of your site straight away, without having to wait for a pointless page to load.

Keep your navigation simple.
To put it simply if your navigation is too complicated and people don't understand how to get around your site this is a huge web design fault. If a visitor doesn't know how to navigate around your site they will get frustrated and end up leaving. Keep your navigation simple and try to avoid using scripts or complicated flash based menus, not all browsers support scripts, so some of your visitors might be missing out on important.

Keep your paragraphs reasonable readable lengths.
Although having lots of relative and informative content on your website is good, it is a bad idea to have the blocks of text to big. Not everyone likes reading and to much can deter a visitor. If you keep your paragraphs in reasonable lengths it is much easier for a visitor to read and absorb.

Style it with CSS.
Make sure your text is readable by using a standard font which is compatible with other systems. While some fonts may look good on your computer other people might not have that font installed. It is good web design practice to use CSS when building you site. CSS or Cascading Style Sheets are a perfect way to set and adjust your websites font and size settings. The great thing about using CSS is that you can change the look of your whole site simply by editing the one file.

Test your website using other browsers.
When you are building your site and still in the web design stage it is important to check how it looks on other browsers, just because it looks fine in internet explorer doesn't mean it looks good on Firefox or Opera. Many people use different browsers and if your site looks a complete mess then you will loose that visitor for good. You can check your websites web design to ensure it complies with the web standards at the w3.org website. Testing the pages using the w3 validation tool will help you make sure it is compatible with other browsers.

I remember when I was a rookie on design I made some splash pages. Obviously, at that time the clients weren't so happy about this change so they also ask me to remove that part. But then I was a rookie...

thank you for giving this information. i will use and implement in my work.

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