| Free Adobe Photoshop website templates by Colorifer.com. Web design articles | |
|
|
|
|
Elements of Graphic Design for Your Website
We've all seen them. Poorly designed web sites that make you cringe as soon as they load. But how do you keep your website from becoming, well, ugh. You could hire a professional web designer, and that's expensive, or maybe you already hired a professional, or someone who claims to be professional, and you don't like what they're doing with your site. It all comes down to the K.I.S.S. principle; keep it simple stupid. And you're probably asking well what does this really mean for web design. Here are some basic graphic design/web design principles that you can use on your site: 1. Background, be careful what color you use for the background of your site. Yes I know that you're trying to get noticed, but really they've already decided to look at your page so why does it have to be orange? Seriously though, consider how long you want people to be on your site, half an hour, one hour, more? Whatever the time chose your background color and then sit in front of your computer and stare at it, for awhile. Is the color easy to look at? Difficult? Does it make your eyes water? Does it make you calm? If you can look at the color for about fifteen minutes without a problem you're okay. 2. Text, related to the above be careful what text color you use. Follow the rules above for determining a text color. It should be easy to read, and look at. 3. Font, no more that three fonts on the entire website. I mean that! A big mistake that I see a lot of times is the use of more than three different fonts, it get's hard to read no matter how neat you think it looks. 4. Font size, no more that three font sizes either. Now I don't mean three font sizes for each of the three fonts you've chosen. I mean no more than three fonts with a total of three sizes throughout the entire site, and if you can get by with less even better. It will simplify your site. 5. Scrolling, this is a big one literally. I've been on too many sites where I had to scroll down so far that my computer beeped at me. This is really important on your main page. Keep it very sparse, generally any information that someone has to scroll more than one full page down for will not be read. This is only a start of course but it's a start and it is on these issues that I see so many problems. Always remember that simplicity is best. Copyright 2004 Kelly Paal About The Author Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com). She has an educational background in photography, business, and commercial art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography principles to her web design.
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Hiring The Right Webmaster The Questions You Should Be Asking ? The Answers You Should Be ReceivingWhen interviewing webmasters, don't let price be your deciding factor. Among webmasters there is a split between those who are skilled in the fine art of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and those who are not. Web Site Design Mistakes Some wise human once said "Learn from the mistakes of others. There isn't nearly enough time to make them all yourself. Turn Benefits Into Sales with Streaming Media The "Wow" factor that accompanied the introduction of streaming media on the Web has long passed, and the technology now has to prove itself to marketers. Its' acceptance by advertisers, in conjunction with other rich media technologies, is on the upswing, but it's still not widely used to enhance commercial sites. 6 Reasons Why A Website Is Crucial To Your Business Since I'm a web designer, I have a tendency to think everyone understands that having a website is important. Every once in a while, I have to remind myself that some people just haven't heard yet!Why is having a website such a big deal? Here are 6 reasons:A website increases your credibility. Ten Basic Steps For Building A Web Site That Works 1. Assemble a web site development plan that is integrated with your overall marketing processes; the content should be consistent with offline materials, the graphics/images don't have to be identical with traditional media, but should be consistent with your overall branding, style guide, usage of colors etc. Website Polls For You And Your Visitors Setting up a survey on your site is extremely simple and many times just as beneficial, for two main reasons. One, they let you create a more interactive website for your visitor. Colorblind People, Can They Really Read Your Web Site? I once created a notepad-like editor. It is possible with this editor to write Russian text on a western Windows without using a Cyrillic keyboard in front of your computer. Can Your Visitors Contact You From Your Website Argh, where's the contact button?! Believe it or not, some websites just DON'T WANT any visitors (even customers) to CONTACT them. There's no email address, no contact form, no NOTHING!What if a potential customer wants to BUY something from your website but have a few questions or doubts that he/she needs to ask you first? If you have a FAQ page, that's the first place he/she will definitely seek answers. Why You Should Hire a Professional Website Designer Your web site should always adhere to standards!A professional web site designer will provide you with a standard compliant web site that is cross-browser supported.What does this mean to you? Why should you care? Any site that isn't standard compliant can "break" in older browsers, or simply not display at all in, say, text-based browsers. Website Sales: 10 Strategic Tips To Maximize Your Profits If you've a website but not making a lot of profit from it, cheer up because I have 10 website sales secrets that can help you maximize your sales and profits, starting now:1. Tell people the point or focus of your web site. 7 Ways of Building Customers Trust With Your Web Site When I purchase something from a web site I first check who is behind this site. If there is no contact information or anything about the owner of the site or his/her company I move on. Congratulations! You've Gotten Visitors To Your Site! Now, Can They Find What Theyre Looking For? As search engine marketers, we spend an enormous amount of time trying to get targeted traffic to our site. But, once those visitors get to our site, can they find what they're looking for? If not, guess what? We've lost a customer. Dos and Donts in Web Design - part 1 (design) Do use a consistent look and feel Your site should stand out as a whole. Use the same look and feel for all the pages at your site. Web Site Redirection - How to Implement a 301 Redirect You just created a new web site but want to pass on the search engine rankings of the old one to the new one. What is the most effective and spider/visitor friendly strategy to implement your web site redirection? You should use a 301 redirect. Testament To Testimonials We have all seen websites showcasing their testimonials either spread strategically throughout the site or all together on their own glorious page. They're there with the intent of leading us toward that high dollar purchase or convincing us of something's legitimacy. Tableless Web Designs: Why I Switched Since I made the switch 6 months ago to a tableless design on my main site, I've noticed some interesting things: My search engine rankings have dramatically improved My bandwidth usage has dropped about 50-75% I can now make changes to the look and feel of my site easily by just changing the one file, the stylesheet. Let's look at why my search engine rankings improved. The Brutal Truth Not too long ago while looking for businesses that do web design I stumbled upon website. It looked great. Ten Design Mistakes to Avoid Avoid these mistakes and your site will be steps ahead of your competition. 1. Why Dot-Coms Fail - a Webmasters Perspective Everyday we hear that another company goes out of business.When and why does a dot-com become a dot-bomb?After checking few dozen defunct companies, I think the main reasons for dot-coms failure are:Poor business plan. Give People What They Want And Watch Your Profits Soar! Do you know why the majority of people use the Internet?The majority of people use the Internet to do some type of research. In other words, to read.
|
|
2007-2008 © Copyright colorifer.com. All Rights Reserved. Free Adobe Photoshop templates. Web Design Articles | Site Map | Terms of Use 
|
