Wednesday, 23 May 2012

How To Design On The Web Like A Pro

By Frank Dibenedetti


No matter what your skill level, design remains the most important aspect in creating a good web page. You can ensure that your website attracts a wide audience by making it aesthetically pleasing, user friendly, and providing content that is enticing. In order to view some web design advice to assist you in creating a beautiful, effective website, continue reading.

It is important for web designers to set realistic goals for themselves with regards to how long each task will take. If you set an unrealistic deadline for yourself, it will ultimately cause you to compromise the quality of your work. It's far better to devote an adequate chunk of time to each task.

Get a few books on web design and study them. Start out with selections that cover the basics, and add to your collection as you become more knowledgeable.

If you design websites, think like an artist. By that, we mean you should be open to inspiration all the time. If something inspires you to have a design idea while you are out and about, make sure that you write down a quick note of your idea on whatever you have access to, for example, a napkin. If you get an idea at work, call and leave yourself a message for yourself on your phone, to remember later.

Have another person constantly test your website functionality through the entire design process. Have someone test each new feature that you add. For instance, you might not be bothered by a video that loads slowly, but someone else may have a different opinion. Feedback from others will be invaluable to you as you build your site.

If your website is a commercial one, do not use a web hosting service that is free. If you choose to go this route you will run the risk of having a ton of advertisement placed on your site, and this will certainly distract consumers who are coming to view your product. Pay a host for their service, and you will be much better off in the long run.

Do not have your website designed or worked on by a family member, especially not for money. Regardless of their experience or reputation, hiring a friend or family member might make it difficult to let them go if they aren't getting the job done to your satisfaction.

Use Photoshop to create professional looking graphics for use on your website. When amateurs use Photoshop, they often create very professional grade sites based off the capabilities of the software. If you do not have a top program like Photoshop, it can make it hard and really time consuming to acquire enough knowledge to build a really nice site, quickly.

Basic design tools will get you started on your website, but you will want to add some custom options. Make sure to infuse your unique personality into your site, rather than just focusing on a drag-and-drop tool that your hosting company might offer.

Focus on making your website an attractive and easily usable place to visit. If this isn't true, visitors will leave your site quickly. Provide all the necessary information, but simplify things as much as possible, so that people do not become frustrated when using your site.

To design a more attractive site, include useful meta tags per each page. Quality and relevant meta tags will provide search engines with information regarding your site. Poor or useless tags that are irrelevant to your site will deter future and returning visitors.

The speed at which your web page loads is an important design factor. If a visitor has to sit and wait for several minutes while your pages load, they are almost certainly going to click away from your site and go somewhere else, and they probably will not come back to your site.

Free software is great to start with when you're getting into web design. Investing in powerful software packages like Photoshop is only worth it if you think they'll pay off in the end. You just need to do a little Internet searching in order to find some free tools that will work best for you.

If you are fortunate enough to have the funding for a major investment into your site, this does not mean that is a wise thing to host the site on your own. Design as much as you can on your own, though allow somebody else to do the hosting. This will save you a lot of time, and provide you with the ability to concentrate on other important things apart from the security and safety of your site.

Try using a newsletter for getting repeat visitors. Having customers subscribe to your newsletter allows you to send them important updates about special events, which in turn can get them to keep visiting your site. It is good practice to place the newsletter signup form in your website's side bar. Furthermore, you should always keep track of everyone who signs up. Send the newsletter only to people who opt-in or you could get in trouble for spam!

Concept sketches are terrific for any designer just starting to create a website. This is a very useful tool because it helps you decide what you want your site to look like, and what features you think it should contain. Using this tool is a fantastic way to begin the design process.

Make sure the colors and fonts used on each page of your website are consistent. If you use many different fonts and colors throughout your site, visitors won't understand what they are supposed to be doing. They may even think they aren't on your website anymore. You can prevent this by always being consistent with the graphics on your site. To extend this consistency even further, use your website's fonts and colors in your company's offline marketing materials.

When you are deciding which hosting service to use, make sure that you understand everything that the package will include. Understand how much storage space you get, CPU usage limits, how much data you can transfer per month, and other important features, including server OS and SSH access. Be certain you understand what you are purchasing.

Apply these tips to create a website your potential customers will find appealing and interesting. Such a site will no doubt be pivotal to the success of your online business.




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