The Basic Aspects of Web Design
Putting together a nice web site can be a daunting task for a beginner. With a few guidelines, however, it is actually easy to produce a great-looking website without any hassle. Here are some of the basic web design dos and don’ts.
Colors
Most of the design principles used for sites are the same as those used for on-paper publication. One of the first things that will be noticed is color. Colors used on the site should complement each other. This can be done by using various shades of a single color or by adding contrasting, but still complementary, shades. Fortunately, there are several free online color pickers that make this easy. Using one of these, even a color-blind person can make a nice-looking site by going with the picker’s suggestions.
One thing to note about web sites is the fact that certain colors gain an overbearing quality when presented online. This is because sites are viewed on monitor or PDA screens that actively emit light, while paper merely reflects the light that hits it. Bright colors or hues are especially subject to this effect, so in most cases, they should be used sparingly.
Fonts
Fonts are the next big element of web design. New web designers are often wowed by the vast array of options available. This creates a huge temptation to put them all in. To have a good, readable web site, however, it is essential to resist this temptation. Think of a newspaper; it has a headline font, a sub-headline font, and a font used for the article body. That’s three. If more variations are added, a site can easily end up looking amateurish or overwhelming.
Overall Layout
The overall layout of a site should be uncluttered and easy to read. Sites generally look better with quite a bit of white space, as opposed to a newspaper. There also should be a margin on all four sides, so it never looks like the text or images are jammed right up to the monitor edge.
The most common web designs put the navigation panel down the side or across the top, administrative and legal statements at the bottom, and the main content in the center. This design is what users expect, so deviating from it will cause confusion. In the case of basic layout, resist the urge to be too original. Radically changing basic elements like navigation will only cause confusion. The navigation links themselves should be easy to figure out without needing to decipher the meaning of your site’s elements. Save your creativity for other areas.
Links
It is the trend to make links un-underlined and do them in colors other than blue. This looks far prettier; however, “real world” users still expect blue underlined links. Tests have shown that non-standard links don’t get clicked nearly as often as underlined blue ones. Therefore, if it is essential that links on your site get clicked, make them blue and underlined whether or not that matches the rest of the site. If not, go ahead and make them any color you like.
The “Heat Map”
A Google study shows that the upper left quadrant of their site gets the most attention from visitors. This is likely true of other sites, as well. This means it makes sense to put your web pages’ most important elements in the upper left quadrant, and your pages’ least important information elsewhere.
With these basic dos and don’ts, you are well on your way to making a nice-looking web site. Since it’s easy to change how a site looks, feel free to test several designs until you have perfected your skills. Soon enough, you’ll be making web sites like a pro.
