Saturday, February 23, 2013

Learn Web Design Quickly And Easily

By Winton Thomas


You want to gain more knowledge about web design but your time is valuable and you may find it difficult to spend time reading up on it. Use this set of tips in order to quickly and efficiently learn some great knowledge that has to do with web design and how to use it for success.

A great tip for web designers who are in the conceptualization stages of their website is simply to brainstorm. This simple, yet underutilized method is a great way to get your ideas down on paper so that you can better visualize what you would like the final product to be.

Keep your front page as simple as possible. People shopping around will immediately decide whether they will use your site or not, simply by how your front page looks. Be descriptive about what your business does, and your unique offerings, but keep everything else to a minimum to avoid distraction.

Include your contact information on each and every page of your site. It can be quite frustrating for a viewer to try to dig through all of your content to find a contact link if they come across an issue or have a problem with your site. You just need a simple contact link at the top or bottom of each page.

No matter who your target audience is or what your site is intended for, you should always aim to keep loading time to ten seconds or less. A well-designed, efficient site should pop up in visitors' browsers in a matter of moments. The majority of online users demand instant gratification, and it is in your best interest to provide it.

Use custom error pages to make your site more informative. For instance, if you want people to report dead links on your site, either put a server-side script on your 404 page or have a form or email address that visitors can use to report the error. You should have custom pages for 403, 404, and 500 errors, at the very least.

Always utilize media and content that is both relative to your site's goal, but also interesting to the potential consumers who will be viewing your site. A site that has relative info, but that is not interesting, won't captivate its audience. A website that uses fun, but non-relative information, will captivate the wrong audience. Both methods equal profits that you are losing.

Include a search element that allows visitors to search within your website content. If those visiting your site are looking for something specific, the first thing they will look for is a search box. When you don"�t have one, they are more likely to move on to another site that does. Always place the box at the top right of the page, as this is the first place visitors tend to look for one.

Keep your pages to a reasonable length. Add content through new pages on your site, instead of tacking it on to the end of a home page. For the most part, readers are hesitant to keep going on a page that seems to scroll on forever. If you must have a lot of content on one page, include hyperlinks at the top and in sections throughout the page. This allows users to navigate through the available content without excessive scrolling.

In conclusion, web design is something that you are interested in learning more about but you often find that you do not make the time to do anything about it. As mentioned earlier, you have just read some of the best tips around, organized in an easy to digest format. Use this expert advice and become a great web designer.




About the Author: