Basics Of Web Design

Where You Should Start When Planning Your Web Design

Web designing is a complex subject and there is always an ongoing conflict between creating a web page for beauty and one for function. In fact, there should be no conflict between the two because with intelligent designing it is possible to create web sites that are both functional and possess high appeal.

The basics of web-designing are targeted to help create better quality designed web-sites that are able to satisfy both criteria, and better achieved by designing sites that are not over decorated, and which exude simplicity and communicate with a visitor. You must aim at simplicity in designing; avoid any element that adds to complexity without adding value.

Basic web designing mechanics necessarily include SEO or search engine optimization. Its understanding and the processes involved is an absolute must for all web designers, without which they might find it impossible to design web sites effectively.

The discipline of web designing includes ways to approach it as a job and provides inputs of mental techniques that lead to successfully creating web sites that are a joy to visit. When you design a website you must remember that the purpose of designing is to facilitate user-content communication. It means your design approach should be sympathetic to ways people use the web, and not, as you think they should use it.

For effective web designing, you must train yourself to understand the different ways in which people approach web sites. Most visitors do not read, but just skim pages for clues to what they are searching for. Instead of careful judgment and evaluation, they just make snap decisions without even looking at the complete picture. Their own goals drive them, and not those of the web designer. Therefore, you must try to gain insights into what users want. This should be the purpose of designing a website.

The web site should not suffer from legibility problems. Always ensure that you avoid unsuitable fonts. This immediately affects the interest of the user if the font size/type is small or frozen. The other thing to avoid is a low contrast between the text and the background. Therefore, text size should be resizable and the text-background contrast should support readability.

While designing, pay close attention to links provided on the site. You need to make sure that whatever a user can click upon is clear and obvious to the user. To ensure this, use coloured text for links that is suitably underlined. Avoid underlining non-linked text lest the user gets confused.

Differentiate between visited and unvisited links, by using different shades of the same colour. The unvisited site colour should be bright and vivid while one for the visited site should be a washed out/dull variant of the same colour. Using entirely different colours like orange and green for sites visited and unvisited may again confuse the user. Also, make sure that you do not use the link colour for any text that is not a link.

You must also take into account usability for elderly users. Do not use tiny text for links or place them too close together. Older users with limited motor skills may face difficulty while making a selection. To facilitate use by older users let your links appear in 12 points or a larger font size. These are some of the basic issues to keep in mind, while designing web sites.