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...
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 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.
Website Design Tips 
NamePros 
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