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.
Avoid useless scripts. Scripts like counters and date/time scripts don’t really serve any purpose, and since they are all JavaScript, can add a few kilobytes to the page’s file size. Getting rid of these elements also frees up space on the homepage. Replace those useless scripts with useful content that keeps users coming back.
Pay careful attention to which colors you choose to use together in your web design. You need to ensure that the text on your site is easily readable against your chosen background. Dark text colors on lighter backgrounds tend to be easier on the eyes than light colors on dark backgrounds. If you have doubts about your color scheme, run it by a few people and see what they think of it.
Wherever your logo appears on your site, you should accompany it with a complementary slogan or tagline. Ideally, this tagline should be catchy and informative, and should offer some basic summary of the purpose of your site or product offering. The combination of your logo and tagline should appear on every page to create a sense of cohesion.
If you have never designed a web page, try using pre-made layouts. These can easily be found online for several blogging web sites like Blogspot or Tumblr. Having an interesting layout will draw attention to content and give the site a professional look. Just make sure your layout is appealing to your target audience!
To help you design a website that is free of clutter, do not include any scrolling text on your site. Websites that have things constantly moving back and forth on the screen is really distracting to the visitor. Not only is this distracting and annoying, it screams unprofessional and will cause your visitors to leave quickly.
White is generally a safe background color to use when designing a professional website. Using white helps visitors be able to read your website, and gives your site a more professional look. Crazy backgrounds can just cause confusion and make your content become lost. It also tends to make your webpage look much less professional. Backgrounds should be simple and subtle.
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.
Consider visitors when constructing your site. The web designer needs to be focused on the end user’s needs at all times. These needs include user interaction, accessibility, and user experience. These are important considerations to make. You need to look through the eyes of the visitors when you make a website.
Be sure load times for your site are good. Visitors would rather leave than wait. Try reducing your number of graphics, Flash, and script on your pages, optimizing your HTML, using SSI files, using client and server caching, creating expire headings, and minimizing your JS and CSS coding.
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.