What to Avoid in Web Design
Published May 16, 2008 | 
We’ve all been there, done that, when it comes to visiting bad websites. The text doesn’t say anything clearly, the graphics are loud and flashy, the pages take too much time loading – we could go on and on, couldn’t we ? So, while designing your website, you should know what to avoid, keeping those websites in mind.
Firstly, when it comes to the homepage, avoid rambling. Don’t go on and on about what you can and cannot do, what are the services you can and cannot provide, etc. Make your text crisp and concise. If possible, divide it into sub-headings. Remember to be clear. The website visitor shouldn’t be driven off in confusion. Also, if you have a Flash movie on your homepage, always keep the option of Skipping Intro – otherwise you are forcing the visitor to wait until the whole thing finishes loading, and what if he’s pressed for time, or doesn’t want to watch the movie ?
When it comes to the navigation, resist the urge to experiment. We’ve seen websites that have no consistency in navigation bars and buttons. One button is on the top of the page, on another page, it’s at the bottom. Not only is this confusing, it looks bad, too! So avoid playing around, keep it consistent. Remember to maintain a rhythm. Also, avoid large garish fonts, this hurts the eyes. At the same time, avoid too-tiny fonts, as these drive people away in frustration, when they can’t read. Remember that reading your text shouldn’t have to be a supreme effort on the part of the visitor. Also, avoid giving information, on and on without pause. Put in sub-headings and paragraphs wherever necessary. Lay emphasis on keeping the text short and clear, and avoid spelling mistakes. This leaves a really bad impression.
And finally, the graphics. This is probably the most important part of any website. Remember that saying: A picture is worth a million words ? It’s true when it comes to web design too. Avoid harsh, loud graphics – and also avoid compressing your photos too much – this makes the photo unclear. And remember which format to use, as well. If the photo in question has few colors, (less than 64), and if it contains text, then use GIF. If it’s a photograph, use JPEG – these are for images that contain 32 million colors or less. Avoid using large graphics, as these increase download time. Make them easy to download.
So now that you know what to avoid in your web design, what are you waiting for ? Get started designing your website !
The Inner Workings of Web Designing
Published May 5, 2008 | In the age of the all dominating Internet, the word website is one of the most common words in our vocabulary. We access websites for everything that we need to know about, from ways to make quick money, to the latest accessories of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle, to analyzing the symptoms for a stomach ache. We also have our favorite list of websites, depending on their content and also their features. In the world of web designing it is often said that in an ideal website, the content should be three clicks away. No one likes to hunt around in a website for whatever they are looking for. Thus, the functionality of a website always depends on the kind of web designing that has gone behind it.
For the uninitiated, web designing is the task of designing web presentations which are content rich and making them available on the Web so that everyone can access them freely. Other than designing web pages and websites, web designing also comprises web applications and multimedia on the web.
Now, the process of web designing is an all comprehensive activity that includes specialization of various disciplines which include animation, design, marketing, search engine optimization, human-computer interaction, typography, photography and various others as well. The process of designing a website is multifaceted, and also involves the use of different kinds of technologies all of which go into the making of a website.
Firstly, all websites are written in a certain language which, in technical terms is called the markup language. This is called Hyper Text Manual Language or HTML as it is more commonly known. A markup language is basically a set of codes that act as annotations to text. These codes describe the required formatting that the text might need. In the beginning, the available HTML was very basic, but with time, more and more complex types of HTML have been developed. Other than a markup language web designing also needs Style Sheet languages that include CSS and XSL. Web designing also makes use of client side scripting and server style scripting, database and multimedia technologies as well. Client-side scripting includes scripts like Java Script while server scripting to PHP, ASP, etc. Multimedia includes software like Flash and Silverlight.
Accordingly, web pages can be static or dynamic. Dynamic pages or websites are always changing due to a variety of factors like actions on the end of the user and so on. Static pages can always be programmed to change into dynamic pages.