Web Design tips – Web Design considerations

Many considerations need to be made when designing a new website. The structure is vital but is only one aspect of the whole thing.

How you use the space provided is worth taking time to consider when putting together a site. You need to use designs that change dynamically as the user changes the browser size but also fill the whole space available to you. As well as these issues, screen resolution also needs to be thought about. In recent times, most computers use widescreen and no longer use a 640 x 480 resolution. Due to this your site could come out differently on other people's computers so be careful if you are designing on a widescreen monitor.

Using colors is a good way to define different spaces on a site. For example, a common technique for laying out content is to have the information on one colour in the center and the rest of the page set to a specific background color. This method is useful as the main content stays in the centre of the page if the window is resized. This deals with the widescreen problem as a bigger monitor will show more background color and a smaller one will show less but the centre content will be the same on both.

A common error in site design is not aligning images properly. Many designers position images without thought and do not wrap text around them correctly. The tag is used to place images on the page but left as it is the text will wrap from the bottom of the image. The align attribute can be used to embed pictures within the text making the layout more appealing to the eye.

Images and text need to be balanced correctly on the site. Overpopulating the page with graphics can make pages difficult to view. Remember that the graphics are part of the design as well when arranging the layout of the page. Think about where you are putting them when designing your site.

The text width is another area to consider. This is most commonly known as the scan length which is how many words are displayed on each line of the page. 7-11 words is a standard amount. If the text has too short a scan length it becomes disjointed, too big and it becomes tricky to read. Keeping the text in line as you design your page is also important. Though it is tempting to centre all the text, this should be avoided. If all the text is centered it can be distracting to reader.

As a final point make a list of the 'most wanted actions' you want your website visitors to perform, and consider them when designing your website layout. If you want to collect your visitors personal details you'll need to ensure that the form or a link to it jumps out at them on the first page they arrive on. If you want your site visitors to go to a certain page after arriving at your site, you'll want to make sure that you've included a banner or icon that takes them to that page.