Regardless of how much experience you may have creating websites, it will always be beneficial to learn more about web design for business. Finding a good source of reliable information can be difficult. Don’t worry, though; this article is here to help. Listed below is a compiled list of helpful web design tips that can help you create some great websites.
Page Loading Speed & Optimization
When you design a web page, always choose the graphics that are appropriate for your purposes. Keep in mind that PNGs are much better than large and poorly working bitmap images. For screenshots, text buttons, and other non-photographic images, use PNG if the image has more than 256 colors, and GIF if not. You can use Jpegs for photos.
To help your web pages load quickly, you should compress all the images on the website page. If you have images that are compressed then pages will load much faster. Nothing is more frustrating to viewers than waiting for a 2MB graphic to load when it should really only be 100kb.
Create CSS pages and conditional loading when designing a website. These two things make maintenance and testing simpler. You do not want to run into problems when making changes to your site.
When tinkering with your HTML, you always need to save a copy. You can save a copy of your code in a Notepad doc; just save it as .html and it will save as an actual webpage. This way, you can tinker around with things and know that there’s a backup should something go wrong. Failure to save pages may result in having to start from scratch.
Navigation
You must create a website that is easily navigable to attract and keep traffic. Ensure that links are visible and displayed in prominent locations. You can also make navigating your site easier with a menu. Link back to the homepage from every other page on your site; this makes it far easier for users to get around.
To help your website visitors find their way home on your site, always include a link to your homepage on each page of your site. Having a home page link that is visible allows your reader to easily make their way back to the starting point. If you do not have a home page link then your visitors might get frustrated and leave your site altogether.
Design
Make text easy to ready by using colors that contrast or backgrounds that are easy to read text on. When your text is harder to read because the background or text color creates eye strain or portions of text that are unreadable, site visitors are less likely to stick around.
Make your website easy to scan. Studies have shown that people usually quickly scan a website rather than thoroughly read it over, as they try to find the stuff that might be interesting to them. You are more apt to gain returning readers if the text is broken down and can be scanned easily. You should put the important stuff on top. In this way, your visitors will have a good experience and get the information they need.
Use Templates
If you have never designed a web page, try using pre-made layouts or templates. These can easily be found online for several blogging web sites like WordPress or Blogspot. Having an interesting layout will draw attention to content and give the site a professional look. Just make sure your layout is appealing to your target audience!
Keep Learning
Keep your education ongoing. Websites are constantly changing, every day, and if you stop learning new things, you may find yourself falling behind the pack with your designs. Try to convince yourself to learn one new thing each day, be it programming a new background, or a simple HTML setup.
Domain Names
If you plan to have multiple websites down the road, then consider reserving their domain names, now. Be creative and pick out something that you want, but make sure you reserve it now so that you can still have it later on down the road. Many people might have the same idea as you.
Now you see that effective web design is really just about the basics. You can easily learn the basics for free on the internet if you are motivated. This article speaks for itself; it details several basic strategies that are an essential part of good web design. For more information, please visit web design south africa.