Six Simple Design Tips

If you need to design your own web site or are thinking of having a website created for you, here are six simple guide lines there will get you off to a great start..

1. Use standard layouts.

Why? Because complicated layouts usually serve up confusion and annoy your readers. The last thing you want to do is to confuse them and get them lost on your site. You should instead be helping them in finding what they are looking for online. The simple 3-column layout is most common because of it’s effectively and simplicity which means ease of use for your readers.

2. Use Common Fonts.

And don’t use too many! Stick to one or two font styles and use ones browsers like. Common fonts include: Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana and Tahoma.

3. Do Not Use Silly Images.

You might think it’s really funny to have a little graphic moving around the page, rotating, changing or flashing at you. However, it could end up annoying readers and being more of a distraction. What you think is cute and funny will not be everyone’s idea of cool.

4. Stick to one or two contrasting colours.

Don’t even think about having multicoloured text and pages. This is NOT cool. It looks child like, very un professional is very off-putting. Also you want each page to be consistent. Every page should have the same basic layout or at lease have some kind of consistancy. If the layout changes, your readers will get lost and become frustrated and leave.

5. Choose graphics that fit with the content.

Remember the goal is to get the information and content across to your readers effectively. If images exist for that reason, then they certainly have the right to be in the design and should be. Otherwise, don’t use them or get rid of them.

6. The most common cause of pages loading slowing is large images. Try and keep them small, 10 to 12 KB is good.

So there you have it. Web design does not have to be complicated. It is simply made more complex and attractive with all the additional features one can add to the presentation. If you need ideas, just flick through a magazine and have a look at the layouts they use.

A competent designer or design company (hint: such as Web Design Northampton) will know that overdoing the design will bring about more negative than positive results. So just remember the simple tips above.