Website Design Tips

Hitch · 12-09-2006, 10:57 AM

Website Design Tips

Hey, I'v made a Reviewing article, a Website Development Resource List, so why not make a Website Design Tips article?

Ok, on this article, i will try and break it down, into the main points of design.
I'm gonna try and keep it simple.

Audience / Genre
This may seem like a stupid point to think about when designing, but i have reviewed many sites that havn't designed their site to suit their auidence and site genre.

Ok, when designing, try and make your design to look like something which resembles your site genre,
eg...A car site? Add a car, or something which resembles a car in your header...eg, tyres, a engine, or the car itself.

Or, a sports site? Add a sports related image in.
Like i said, it's a obvious thing to do, but many forget to do it.

A lot of the time, i see poker sites, or game sites, which will have a abstract image in, and i wouldn't have a clue what the site was about, untill i started to read the Welcome text in detail.
However, don't go over the top, eg, have bullit points as Footballs, typres, or dollar signs etc...it would just look tacky.

Now, colour, lets say you have a skateboarding site? or Rock band site? You could make it have a white background, but why not use a dark grey, or black...
Try and associate site colours with the genre...eg, childs site, Bright, colourful colours...

Equal Margins / Padding
I think this is a very important note, that will make your site look cool, or tacky.

Try and make equal margins, in content boxes, containers, or text/images.
So, on your content box, add the margin / padding of 1-px (for ex'), and have that on the left, right, top and the bottom, it makes it look very neat!
If you have unequal margins, it can look like you just added text, and couldn't bother how your site is layed out.

Animated Images
Animated images can make your site look cool, in the header...
However, having alot of animated images surrounding your content, really puts most people off what they are reading, and loose focus, causing them to leave...sometimes ads are animated, ok, just don't have so many crammed together around content!

Evern still images can be annoying, when surrounding text, so, try to organize you ads, so they are away from content, but easily visable.

Widths
It can be annoying choosing the width of your site sometimes, to make it perfect.
I find sites look best depending on their content.

If your websites has alot of articles, long peices of content, use a wide design (Fluid), also, it won't make your page look aslong, and make your users think "Uh, too much to read".
If you have little content, then it's basically the other way around...You want users to think you have a fair bit of content, so, cramming text up abit will create this impression.

Colours and Text
We talked about colours and genres above, but this time, this has a different reason.

Back last year, when i was in school in graphics, we had to learn about "ergonomics", this can play a very important part in graphic and webdesign.
Basically, it's partly about choosing colours that go well together...
Don't have a site with a dark background, they dark grey text, it makes it very hard to read...
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/web-design-discussion/267205-website-design-tips.html
Also, don't have a site with a dark background, and bright colours, both can strain the eyes, and make it hard to read.
Keep this in mind when design, choose colours that can go well together.

Fonts, there is so many of them these days!
Arial, Verdana and Tahoma are still the most used fonts on websites, that's good, they are easy to read.
I'm talking about these new grunge, graffity, modern fonts...some look good, some don't.
Bare in mind, whichever font you use, it has to be easy to read!

Examples below of Colours and Text

????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=267205
Navigation
Basically, use easy to read fonts, and colours that go well together, like the points above, and place the navigation near the top of your page, so it gets noticed.

Welcome messages.
Let your visitors know what your site is about, and what the benefits of them registering/visiting are!

When i opened my last forum, about a year ago, i posted it in the NamePros chat, and a user pointed out (I think it was RJ), that it doesn't say what the forum is about, or, what the benefits of registration are...
Thinking about it, it was a stupid mistake i did, but, we sometimes miss things such as this.

So, add a box, keeping it with your sites theme, add in what your site is about, and the benefits of registering...keep it short and simple...
A good example, is the Welcome Headers here at NamePros.
See below

(It is wider on the homepage, i just make it thinner for this post)
If your forum is running on vBulletin, you could try the Weclome Headers plugin. It just generally makes the process easier. It can be found here

Notices
A easy way to get notices across to your users, if via a little box, which is a nice colour which stands out, but abit pale.

Or, you could use a "corner banner", which is what i used to use on my forum.
See below

It looks neat and tidy, and isn't obstructing the view, and it doesn't annoy anyone...
Note: Clesto was my old site. ; )

Hopefully, that's some points that may help you. : )
I will add more points as time goes on. : )

Adrian
Rep is appreciated.

makroz · 12-31-2006, 06:07 PM

Very nice Tips

YesBrilliant · 12-31-2006, 08:39 PM

Great article, simple but useful.

Thanks!

Netty · 01-06-2007, 08:12 PM

what good html tutorial sites could u recommend?

YesBrilliant · 01-06-2007, 09:52 PM

Originally Posted by sopka1985

what good html tutorial sites could u recommend?

This is a good one:
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=267205

W3
http://www.w3schools.com/

Free, as well.

amitav · 01-07-2007, 12:21 PM

well i am also looking for such articles. i am a web designer working hard to improve my designing skills.

wavereel · 02-02-2007, 08:09 PM

Here's an awesome tutorial on how to design a website in photoshop and then deploy it into html. I was so excited when I found this link because I've been trying to figure out how to design a website from photoshop for a while!

technohelpnow.com

JJH

cicerone · 02-06-2007, 12:22 AM

This is really a very good post especially for the novices, thanks a ton for the information provided friend, keep such stuff coming

Just_me86 · 02-06-2007, 01:20 AM

http://www.good-tutorials.com/

02-09-2007, 08:47 AM

these are decent enough tips for the UK and western hemisphere crowd of web designers, but there are hundreds of millions, if not billions, of internet users in Asia who have a totally different perspective towards designs. Bright and gaudy colors and oodles of animations are very trendy in China, for example. I for one follow all of your suggestions and more, but I design and code for the English-speaking audiences.

Web Master · 03-05-2007, 10:08 PM

Cool post. Thanks.

Icon · 03-13-2007, 05:37 PM

Great tip

.

megdilts · 03-18-2007, 11:07 AM

Cool tips. Thanks.

tm · 03-18-2007, 03:05 PM

Another tip I'd suggest is don't over do it. Information is good, but when you see non-informational based sites with just pages and pages of text, it drives the user away.

Netty · 03-22-2007, 05:49 PM

i could not see the following content:

"Examples below of Colours and Text: X X"

2 x's in boxes is all i could see

robputt796 · 03-23-2007, 04:59 PM

Nice Tips,

I will need to take some of these on board, although I think the main problem I have at the moment is SEO.

mr.tyro · 03-25-2007, 01:38 AM

O very good guide and its mainly good common sence

nmoshana · 04-26-2007, 03:25 PM

Originally Posted by YesBrilliant

This is a good one:
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=267205

W3
http://www.w3schools.com/

Free, as well.

Remarkable website.

Adrian,
Thanks so much for the tips.
Rep added

Ninos

zoltan · 05-31-2007, 06:50 AM

Briliant tips! Thanks

rizwee · 07-10-2007, 08:25 AM

very nice tips...u have shared...keep it up

arnold123 · 07-10-2007, 08:45 AM

thanks good share

boomers · 07-10-2007, 11:14 AM

Thanks for this post.... im no good at webdesign, I generally use free templates and just code the CMS. However this will give me a bit of confidence to perhaps try and edit them to better suit my needs

bublebubbles · 07-15-2007, 07:42 PM

thanks for ur help

Joseph Grogan · 07-20-2007, 09:28 AM

Hi all. Im new to this forum and web design to.

Was wondering does any one have any tips about getting good quality back links and where is the best places to go looking for them....

Cheers

Joseph

Simplistic · 07-27-2007, 03:23 PM

Thanks for the tips, a lot of this really helps!

12-09-2006, 10:57 AM	THREAD STARTER #1 (permalink)
Hitch Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Uk, South Yorkshire Posts: 1,225 Follow @adrianc333	Website Design Tips Website Design Tips Hey, I'v made a Reviewing article, a Website Development Resource List, so why not make a Website Design Tips article? Ok, on this article, i will try and break it down, into the main points of design. I'm gonna try and keep it simple. Audience / Genre This may seem like a stupid point to think about when designing, but i have reviewed many sites that havn't designed their site to suit their auidence and site genre. Ok, when designing, try and make your design to look like something which resembles your site genre, eg...A car site? Add a car, or something which resembles a car in your header...eg, tyres, a engine, or the car itself. Or, a sports site? Add a sports related image in. Like i said, it's a obvious thing to do, but many forget to do it. A lot of the time, i see poker sites, or game sites, which will have a abstract image in, and i wouldn't have a clue what the site was about, untill i started to read the Welcome text in detail. However, don't go over the top, eg, have bullit points as Footballs, typres, or dollar signs etc...it would just look tacky. Now, colour, lets say you have a skateboarding site? or Rock band site? You could make it have a white background, but why not use a dark grey, or black... Try and associate site colours with the genre...eg, childs site, Bright, colourful colours... Equal Margins / Padding I think this is a very important note, that will make your site look cool, or tacky. Try and make equal margins, in content boxes, containers, or text/images. So, on your content box, add the margin / padding of 1-px (for ex'), and have that on the left, right, top and the bottom, it makes it look very neat! If you have unequal margins, it can look like you just added text, and couldn't bother how your site is layed out. Animated Images Animated images can make your site look cool, in the header... However, having alot of animated images surrounding your content, really puts most people off what they are reading, and loose focus, causing them to leave...sometimes ads are animated, ok, just don't have so many crammed together around content! Evern still images can be annoying, when surrounding text, so, try to organize you ads, so they are away from content, but easily visable. Widths It can be annoying choosing the width of your site sometimes, to make it perfect. I find sites look best depending on their content. If your websites has alot of articles, long peices of content, use a wide design (Fluid), also, it won't make your page look aslong, and make your users think "Uh, too much to read". If you have little content, then it's basically the other way around...You want users to think you have a fair bit of content, so, cramming text up abit will create this impression. Colours and Text We talked about colours and genres above, but this time, this has a different reason. Back last year, when i was in school in graphics, we had to learn about "ergonomics", this can play a very important part in graphic and webdesign. Basically, it's partly about choosing colours that go well together... Don't have a site with a dark background, they dark grey text, it makes it very hard to read... ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/web-design-discussion/267205-website-design-tips.html Also, don't have a site with a dark background, and bright colours, both can strain the eyes, and make it hard to read. Keep this in mind when design, choose colours that can go well together. Fonts, there is so many of them these days! Arial, Verdana and Tahoma are still the most used fonts on websites, that's good, they are easy to read. I'm talking about these new grunge, graffity, modern fonts...some look good, some don't. Bare in mind, whichever font you use, it has to be easy to read! Examples below of Colours and Text ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=267205 Navigation Basically, use easy to read fonts, and colours that go well together, like the points above, and place the navigation near the top of your page, so it gets noticed. Welcome messages. Let your visitors know what your site is about, and what the benefits of them registering/visiting are! When i opened my last forum, about a year ago, i posted it in the NamePros chat, and a user pointed out (I think it was RJ), that it doesn't say what the forum is about, or, what the benefits of registration are... Thinking about it, it was a stupid mistake i did, but, we sometimes miss things such as this. So, add a box, keeping it with your sites theme, add in what your site is about, and the benefits of registering...keep it short and simple... A good example, is the Welcome Headers here at NamePros. See below (It is wider on the homepage, i just make it thinner for this post) If your forum is running on vBulletin, you could try the Weclome Headers plugin. It just generally makes the process easier. It can be found here Notices A easy way to get notices across to your users, if via a little box, which is a nice colour which stands out, but abit pale. Or, you could use a "corner banner", which is what i used to use on my forum. See below It looks neat and tidy, and isn't obstructing the view, and it doesn't annoy anyone... Note: Clesto was my old site. ; ) Hopefully, that's some points that may help you. : ) I will add more points as time goes on. : ) Adrian Rep is appreciated. __________________ Cueburst - Support System - FAQ Knowledge Base, Tickets and more.

01-06-2007, 08:12 PM	#4 (permalink)
Netty NamePros Regular Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 319	new people what good html tutorial sites could u recommend?

02-02-2007, 08:09 PM	#7 (permalink)
wavereel New Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 2	turning photoshop images into html Here's an awesome tutorial on how to design a website in photoshop and then deploy it into html. I was so excited when I found this link because I've been trying to figure out how to design a website from photoshop for a while! technohelpnow.com JJH

02-06-2007, 01:20 AM	#9 (permalink)
Just_me86 New Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 5	http://www.good-tutorials.com/ __________________ $450 Free money to play poker , no deposit required. Poker Bankrolls, WSOP videos

03-13-2007, 05:37 PM	#12 (permalink)
Icon New Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 3	Great tip.

Website Design Tips

new people

turning photoshop images into html

thx for your tips

New designer

12-31-2006, 06:07 PM	#2 (permalink)
makroz Account Closed Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 187	Very nice Tips

12-31-2006, 08:39 PM	#3 (permalink)
YesBrilliant Account Closed Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 1,075	Great article, simple but useful. Thanks!

01-07-2007, 12:21 PM	#6 (permalink)
amitav First Time Poster! Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 1	well i am also looking for such articles. i am a web designer working hard to improve my designing skills.

02-06-2007, 12:22 AM	#8 (permalink)
cicerone New Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 7	This is really a very good post especially for the novices, thanks a ton for the information provided friend, keep such stuff coming

02-09-2007, 08:47 AM	#10 (permalink)
pixelhero Guest Posts: n/a	these are decent enough tips for the UK and western hemisphere crowd of web designers, but there are hundreds of millions, if not billions, of internet users in Asia who have a totally different perspective towards designs. Bright and gaudy colors and oodles of animations are very trendy in China, for example. I for one follow all of your suggestions and more, but I design and code for the English-speaking audiences.

03-05-2007, 10:08 PM	#11 (permalink)
Web Master Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: www.Shelter-Your-Domains.zor.org Posts: 1,570	Cool post. Thanks.

03-18-2007, 11:07 AM	#13 (permalink)
megdilts NamePros Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 27	Cool tips. Thanks. __________________ Promote your business and website and get free links.

03-18-2007, 03:05 PM	#14 (permalink)
tm Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: on a oil rig just off Ireland Posts: 1,408	Another tip I'd suggest is don't over do it. Information is good, but when you see non-informational based sites with just pages and pages of text, it drives the user away. __________________ You design in photoshop, I code into valid XHTML/CSS. Professional PSD, PNG or HTML to tableless XHTML/CSS designs. For more info, send me a PM.

03-22-2007, 05:49 PM	#15 (permalink)
Netty NamePros Regular Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 319	thx for your tips i could not see the following content: "Examples below of Colours and Text: X X" 2 x's in boxes is all i could see

03-23-2007, 04:59 PM	#16 (permalink)
robputt796 NamePros Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: UK Posts: 123	Nice Tips, I will need to take some of these on board, although I think the main problem I have at the moment is SEO. __________________ Rob Putt Putt Hosting - UK Based Hosting - Shared, Linux VPS, Windows VPS

05-31-2007, 06:50 AM	#19 (permalink)
zoltan New Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 15	Briliant tips! Thanks __________________ Digital Camera News - Digital Rebel review - Olympos Cameras

03-25-2007, 01:38 AM	#17 (permalink)
mr.tyro NamePros Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 34	O very good guide and its mainly good common sence

07-10-2007, 08:25 AM	#20 (permalink)
rizwee New Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 4	very nice tips...u have shared...keep it up

07-10-2007, 08:45 AM	#21 (permalink)
arnold123 NamePros Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 121	thanks good share __________________ Fap Turbo \|Webmasters Guide

07-10-2007, 11:14 AM	#22 (permalink)
boomers NamePros Regular Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 518	Thanks for this post.... im no good at webdesign, I generally use free templates and just code the CMS. However this will give me a bit of confidence to perhaps try and edit them to better suit my needs __________________ Free Horse Racing Tips

07-15-2007, 07:42 PM	#23 (permalink)
bublebubbles New Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 18	thanks for ur help

07-20-2007, 09:28 AM	#24 (permalink)
Joseph Grogan First Time Poster! Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Cloghan Posts: 1	New designer Hi all. Im new to this forum and web design to. Was wondering does any one have any tips about getting good quality back links and where is the best places to go looking for them.... Cheers Joseph Last edited by mis_chiff; 02-27-2010 at 01:21 AM.

07-27-2007, 03:23 PM	#25 (permalink)
Simplistic New Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 6	Thanks for the tips, a lot of this really helps!

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