19 Sep Tips and Tricks For Web Design Beginners
This guest post comes from reader Penelope who writes for many websites. It grabbed my attention becasue one of the most frequent questions I am asked is about “how to start a web design business”. Here are some solid tips al newbie designers should keep in mind as they start a new site. Read and Enjoy!
Learning various tips and tricks about web design is always essential for beginners. In fact, even those who are making a career out of designing websites for various clients should need to keep themselves updated with the latest information so they will never be left behind by the competition. When you have decided to start building and designing your very own website, you need to consider a lot of things. These tips will always be valuable if you want to become an expert web designer.
1. Simplicity and cleanliness of the design are always preferred. If you know Photoshop or Fireworks, you might be tempted to apply all these great and complicated designs on your website. Always remember not to overdo everything. If the pages of your site are filled with various colors and artistic designs, it may look cluttered and this will usually put off your site visitors. Keep your design simple by emphasizing important information using visual images, organizing the information for easy reading, optimizing images to allow fast downloads and complementing images with its text equivalent.
2. The layout of the text is also important. It is better if you keep it narrow. It allows your readers to browse the information faster thus preventing them from getting bored. If you read newspapers daily, you can see the reason why.
3. Your site should always be filled with contents. It should be updated regularly with topics related to the chosen niche. Visitors usually come back to check for new topics once they like the website. Web design is not all about the images and the colors; it is also about the written content. Therefore you must make sure that you are providing only interesting and informative posts. Asking for comments and feedbacks from readers will help you see the flaws of your site.
4. When using pictures to communicate with the audience, use it effectively. Make sure that the color or the motif you choose fits the nature of the niche. The images should not overpower the contents of the site. If you are for example promoting a website for little girls, you can use color pink and add appropriate images like butterflies or flowers. If creating a business site, you may opt for more professional colors like blue, white, gray or black. If you want to highlight something, you can use visuals. You may use simple buttons for different links found on your site.
5. Make sure that every design that you create in all your site’s web pages is consistent. It makes your site easier to remember and the contents of the site are not hard to look for because they are organized to be the somehow similar from one page to another. The colors and the icons should be the same from one page to another and the fonts should be limited to few styles.
6. Always cater to the needs of the customers. Read customer feedbacks and suggestions on how to improve your site and apply the things that could help improve your design. The information should be easy to find. The accessibility is essential in a website. Visitors feel important once you interact with them and respond to their needs.
7. Always consider to incorporate the common things on your web pages. If you want to make your site a bit unique, make sure it will not provide you with risks. For example, you can usually see the links to other sites, especially social media sites and feeds in a certain part of the page that can be seen once you open it (mostly beside the categories). These links are usually grouped together. Changing it the way how people are used to it will only make it hard to locate. It could prevent any chances from getting more leads to your site.
8. Once the website you are trying to design is finished or published, go ahead and check its usability. Try to open the various web pages of the site and click all the links. You should know what to add and what to change. Another important thing to do is to open your website in all available web browsers. Making a series of tests on your website will prevent any problems in the future.
Now I have presented some of the things you need to keep in mind when designing websites. Make use of it and add your personality and heart while doing your work. Trust me, it could make a difference.
Penelope N. is a writer for http://www.bestonlinecollege.org/. If you want to learn more about designing websites, learn what schools can offer you an accredited education.
Recently I shared some of my top tips for getting started in in web design on YouTube; you can see the video here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KswP1axGK7Q
Do you have a “top tip?” Share it in the comments 🙂
