Cliffwood Organics Web Design Blog » Web Designing

Essential tips for web design

cliff — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 08:28:18 +0000

The navigational aspect – Being able to navigate the given set of links on the site plays a key role in shaping the stickiness factor of the site that is the time visitor stays and travels around the site. Thus, he would most likely go through the content of a page and then look around to locate another page of his interest.
Keeping the layout design clean – In order to enhance a site’s looks and appearance, a spick and span layout that utilizes a lot of white space should be opted for. The designer must try and keep the attention on the content and possibly use the fonts which will be accessible on each and every computer to avoid the site appearing bungled.
Striking an optimal loading time – In order to make sure that the loading time is short, a designer must try and avoid things like flash, graphics and scripts as much as possible since all of them take long time to load on a page. It is also better to ensure that the site doesn’t include any redundant tags or idle and useless scripts.
Compatibility with the major browsers – The designer must make sure that the site operates properly on at least each of the major browsers used today. The best way to do this is to verify the site for Internet Explorer 5+, Mozilla Firefox 1+, Opera 7+, Safari 3+ and Netscape Navigator 6+ which more or less represent about 95% of the total web browsers in the world.
Compatibility for Screen Resolutions: A site that is comprehensible and user friendly must always support its visitors to hang about and go through all the content on the site. For the web sites which have continuous extended pages of content it becomes extremely crucial since the total scrolling required gets condensed in the process. Now if the web site fails to appear attractive for any one resolution it is most likely that the user will exit the browser window with a feeling that the particular page is not meant for his viewing. Thus, crafting stretch layouts which will fit any kind of screen resolution makes sure that the web master will be aware that all the visitors can see a visually attractive and proficient site.
Use of pure CSS: The fact is as clear as any writing on the wall that the computer world is gradually but surely shifting away from table based sites to pure CSS sites for a variety of factors. CSS sites offer an ease of access, reusability and significantly trim down the file size along with rendering a greater control on the overall appearance of the website.

Essential strategies for web design

cliff — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:23:04 +0000

Swift loading designs for a web site – THE most essential guideline for every single web designer to follow as a thumb rule is to take into account the aspect of loading time of a site. In fact, even if a designer winds up designing a web site which may look just fantastic but then very few are actually going to see that if it involves a long loading time. The designs have to be appropriate for the web and under any circumstances must not load for more than 15 seconds. It has to be kept in mind that even if one might have a fantastic appearance in case of an extensive loading time few will be able to witness it.
The resolution compatibility – With the break neck speed of development in the area, toady one comes across computers which have different kinds and configurations of resolution. In fact, the range may begin from 640 x 480 to 800 x 600 to 1024 x 768 and it may even go higher. The designer must bear this in mind that his task is to create a site that is suitable for all of the above. To do the designing in terms of percentage instead of pixels would certainly be the finest way to accomplish the task.
Congruency with the web browsers – To design a site which would be compatible with all web browsers is again very important. In other words, the site must maintain the same appearance in Mozilla Firefox and also in Internet Explorer. Thus, it would be a highly imprudent thing to stop the designing job just because the site looks and feels fantastic on IE. More often than not browsers such as Netscape create certain troubles, particularly when one is dealing with complex designs in HTML. However, instead of simply getting fed up the giving up the task, one must deal with the issue patiently as they can straightforwardly be repaired if one is tolerant enough.
Minimal application of images – There re no second thoughts to the fact that the simplest of the designs are considered to be the most successful for the purpose of the web. Thus, keeping the web site straightforward and yet orderly is an essential task to accomplish. Cluttering up the page with large, colossal images must be avoided if possible since they always take long time to load. Instead of it, one can use a bit of creativity and design the page with elements such as tables, attractive icons, etc. which will inevitably attract the visitor to a certain portion of the web site. One must not forget that the majority of the web users are generally less interested in design and focuses on the content.

Designing user interfaces

cliff — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:08:49 +0000

Considering the fact that we live in what is often described as the cyber age, it is only natural that we will have to come across various manifestations of the web technology in the different spheres of our daily lives. The very concept of the user interface is one such visible symptom of the aforementioned phenomenon. User interface design or user interface engineering as it is also referred to as, can be defined as the process of designing the computers, various appliances, machines, especially the mobile communication devices and accessories, software applications, along with websites where the primary focus is on the experience and interaction of the individual user.

The prime objective of a user interface design can be realized as an effort not only to simplify the user’s interaction procedure but also as competent as possible, that is mainly in terms of achieving the goals of the user which is often described as a user-centered design. One of the most accepted and common feature of an ideal or high quality user interface design should be the fact that it will facilitate, with no needless attention seeking to itself, the finishing of the assignment just around the corner. In fact, graphic design can even be used to validate a particular theme or a particular style to an interface while at the same time the usability factor will remain as it is without getting even slightly compromised.

One of the very basic objects of the entire process of the design is to ensure the equilibrium between the technical purpose as well as the visual elements that is the mental model, so as to build a particular system which will not only just be equipped but also utilizable and adjustable to the changing requirements and needs of the user. There are simply a huge and equally diversified range of projects from computer accessories, systems or peripherals, to automobiles, to even commercial airplanes that either involve or directly apply the fundamentals of the concept of Interface design. Although most of these assignments engage a good deal of the very basic human communication, there are certain cases which also demand a certain extent of exclusive skills and awareness. Thus in consequence, the designers mostly have a propensity to concentrate in certain kinds of assignments and encompass skills which are revolving around their technical know how, which can either be designing software, user research, web designing or even industrial design. However, it must be noted that there are several distinct and diverse steps, phases and processes that in its entirety constitute the user interface design. Among all these above mentioned phases, some of them are more stipulated than the rest, dependant up on the particular assignment.

A couple of important lessons in web design

cliff — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:00:09 +0000

Despite not being exactly relevant to the idea of web design, the first and foremost tip proves to be far more significant than design itself in the long run. While many try to learn the tricks of web design they tend to think that it will help them to convert useless set of pages into pretty entities, since most are misled into thinking that style instead of content forms the core of the business. However, they all must spare a minute to contemplate and realize the fact that basically the existence of a web page is only to provide the users or the visitors with something that is useful or attention grabbing. But then, if a page fails to accomplish this task, then it becomes far more important to get that problem right instead of worrying about the style of presenting it. Hence at the very onset, one must actually try to address questions such as what is being actually offered to a visitor to the site or is it really worth anyone’s time to pay a visit to a particular site. Until and unless they are cleared there is hardly any point in progressing or planning about the look or appearance of the web site.

Avoiding any kind of sleazy elements has to be the next important lesson in the course of web designing. One has to admit that most of the web users across the globe find features like animation and the so called creative use of sounds to be extremely disturbing. Most tend to complain or grumble about the fact that it is next to impossible to focus on reading the content given on a particular web site when there are numerous other elements moving all around the web page. According to these annoyed users, the whole thing is ridiculously like trying to go through a newspaper peacefully while a menace is continuously poking on the shoulder again and again. Moreover, the visitors who are using slower connections often dislike the idea of simply wasting time by loading animations and sound files which are of absolutely no use. Although one may tend to think that people will get attracted to an animated advertisement, but in fact it is just the reverse. Readers feeling battered by these ads are most likely to go away from the site right away without any clicks or anything, and are even far less expected to do any kind of bookmarking on the site with any intention of returning or even recommending it to others. Thus studies often reveal that an animated banner ad can even be less effective than a stationary ad on a web page.

Ten ways to promote your website

cliff — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:33:45 +0000

Most people mistake website promotion as only the act of registering with a search engine. What most people do is that they go and register their site with engines like yahoo, Google, etc. they think this is sufficient for the website to gain popularity and publicity. However, this is far from being the truth. Websites require as much effort after the launch as it requires during the designing phase. You have to let people know about your website and highlight its unique points. This can be done in a number of ways. We shall tell you a few.

• Register your website with a search engine. This is the first and basic step for any new web design. And this is a must. Your website should feature among the top few searches when people try to look for relevant content on the search engines. This will give your website the required boost. Also make sure your website contains all relevant keywords with which people usually tend to search the required topic. However, this is not the sole step to website building.

• Also register yourself with some web directory like yahoo. These are less popular than search engines but will also help you immensely.

• Get linked to some well established website on the net. This is another way to promote your product. Search engines like Google tend to give extra favors to sites that are linked with some already existing popular site.

• Create a unique email signature for yourself. Mail people to make them know more about your site. But mail only those who have searched for your site and visited it at least once. Do not go on a mailing spree. People will never visit your website if you do that!

• Be a member of newsgroups. Yahoo has many newsgroups. So do many other websites. It is another good way of being in contact with a lot of people. It also makes a lot of people aware about your website and its day to day updates.

• Create offline techniques of promotion as well. Do not confine yourself to online activity. Do promotional campaigns for your creation. Try to advertise in newspapers and magazines.

• You may also consider joining web rings, partnerships or affiliations.

• You may also opt for banner advertising if you feel that web rings are not your cup of tea.

• Your achievements will also count when it comes to the popularity of your website. If your website is genuinely of good quality, it is sure to win some accolade. This will definitely work in your favor. So put in all the effort that you can in making your website a well designed one. It will surely bring you a lot of followers.

• Make your website as easy to navigate as possible. This always works as users long for easy looking websites. Make the information easily accessible.

Fundamentals Of Web Designing

cliff — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:03:15 +0000

Web design is preparation of few basic grounds, and if you recognize those you can make impressive page design which will illuminate your readers.

Web designing Tips

The tips given below will be helpful to you for creating great web designs which will work with your readers.

Make use of small images such as 10-15 kb/ image, obviously it is dependent of the source, but pages that loads slowly are actually very annoying and large images are a basic cause of slow page load. It is very simple to optimize your image.

Every time apply graphics which fit the contents. Even though you are having an adorable snap of your dog, do not apply it on your website if it is not related and appropriate for the site theme.

Follow standard layouts. The layout of 3 columns is very popular on websites and newspapers as it works great. You could feel it is boring, however, you will be keeping more readers when you go with something simple that they could understand.

white space is a function of your layout. So it should be more than the CSS property.

Fonts To Use –

Ms Serif for headlines and Ms Sans-serif for text – Serif fonts are the most readable fonts on computer screens as the resolution of screen is not much high like prints. If you type normal text in serif fonts, it blurs together on screen and make it hard for reading.
Reduce the number of several fonts. There are only 2 to 3 standard font families that are easy to read and looks more professional.
Choose Standard font families – Take “Rockwood LT” as an example. You can use this font your web page, but possibly one of your readers will be having that font and is much low too. Going with standard fonts such as- Arial, Geneva, Helvetica, Verdana may appear boring, however your web pages will look superior and your designs will look appropriate for several number of browsers.

Consier Your Readers –

Take a trial of your web pages with different browsers.
Write the contents according to users requirement. Unless you write the web site only for yourself, ensure that your contents should involve topics which your readers desire to read.

Goal Of Web Designing

cliff — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:58:21 +0000

An online presence of any business is an essential factor of ecommerce in today’s market. An online presence in business provides great power to consumers, who can access your services and products 24x 7 all over the world. The ‘Internet’ is the brilliant way to get in the market. Discerning that you are having an effectual online presence round a clock, accessible from anywhere all over the world and also at very low cost gives a competitive edge to your business. An effective and impressive web design, which is informative and enthrall the interest of the visitor is the only way for establishing a great presence online.

Know Web Design

Web design can be defined as a procedure of planning, modeling, conceptualizing and execution and of electronic media content delivery through Internet. To explain it in simple way, web designing is the creation and organization of web pages that build a web site. The initial goal of a web design is to make a web site which presents content to the visitor in the form of a web pages.

Steps for Successful Web Design –

To design a unique web site needs an optimal combination of technology, art and communication skills. Therefore it is essential to deal with a professional web designer or to get the services from an established web design company.
Learn a little about business as well as its particular requirements but do essential groundwork
Home page of your company’s web site is the first opening of the introduction to clients of your business. So, keep in mind that “First impression is the last impression”.
Concentrate on the visibility and the appearance of the web site. You web site should be “Search Engine Optimized”, and easy to find. Text and Graphics of site should be appealing, relevant and professional.
You site should be navigating easily and will provide a reliable interface. That means site should be “user friendly”.
The information and content pageant on your site should be related to the site and delivering the intended message to the target customer base.
Check all links on site and update. To ensure that your site is working properly check all links regularly.
To get the best results from your web site ‘optimize it’ by approaching “SEO”.

If you implement these web designing tips you will notice a remarkable increase in your online traffic of visitors.

Your business will be posited ahead of the competitors with the help of an effective Web Design. It is the basic tool of successful e-commerce and online business.

Top 5 tips on how you can reduce cost on web design

cliff — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 09:56:47 +0000

Today website is the most important and it is the part of your business it is like a salesperson that is working for your company 24 hours by advertising your business. For creating a good website whether it can be used for your business or advertising purpose it involves several involvement of designing that can attract many people to your site. However, with the growing number of web users websites are more in demand and if you need more design works in the website it increases the overall cost of developing a website.

There are some tips that can guide you how to reduce cost on website design without loosing the quality of your website.

1. First decide the specifications for the website that you exactly want. There are several reasons why the price of the website increases in the last. There are several factors such as designs, features in the website and requirement of the user that are changes latter till the development of the website. Keep in mind the more time is taken to complete the website the more it will cost.

2. Many people want their website to look fantastic and with an unnecessary design involved in the website to attract more traffic, but this doesn’t work all the time and thus increases the website cost, because the more time and designs involved in making website the more money is incurred. Therefore to avoid this do not go for a complicated artistic designs, because this increase time and money. If you want to reduce more cost on the website just go for a simple website look do not go for unnecessary designs, flash works and too much images for the website. Because you do not need a showy website for the customers to attract, just get a simple and professional website that contains good writing contents and subjects that will be valuable for the users. This can reduce your unnecessary money.

3. For more efficient website, try design the website for keeping the search engine optimization in mind. Using your website for the search engine can increase the number of traffic for most websites. Many people fail to design their website for search engine optimization because of the poor website design that fails to attract many people. Therefore always make sure you are making website for the search engine and other specifications you want in the website.

4. Many people ask for the website development agency to make the website for them and they give them some tight time to develop the website, developing websites in short time increases the overall charge for the website. The web developers are very professional to their work they will increase their rate for the urgent websites. Therefore allowing the agencies enough time for the website will ultimately charge you less and reduces the cost for your project.

5. For developing the website and which also cost less use the open source platform if you want to buildup a CMS or E- commerce website. There are several open sources such as Joomla, Drupal, Word press and many others they offer free service for making the websites. Hence, if you want to reduce the overall costs for the website try using the open source platforms.

Useful tips for web designing

cliff — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 05:47:44 +0000

A Website is like the nerve center of all your internet movement. People won’t visit the website if they are not made with attractive designs and styles. Therefore, designs on the websites should be made in such a manner that will make people visit again and again.

Here are some important web design tips for the web site that should be followed and this will guarantee that the visitors will feel a great impression for your site.

1. Fast loading of website: Many of us know that there are thousands of competing websites that are dealing with the website you have. For example imagine you have a website with lots of pages and links on it, and when some body click on the link and keep waiting and waiting for the site to load this can take visitors time, as you know web searchers are impatient they never wait for the website that take lot of time to load. They may close your site and move on to other website. Most likely your website should take at least 10-12 seconds to load this can keep the user stay on your site. There are many reasons why website takes much time to load because of the heavy and bulky images on the site that causes the website to load slowly. Some of the websites that are most visited are Yahoo, Google, Rediff, Ebay, Amazon that do not carry too many images on the site and that takes less time to load.

2. Support Resolution: Today, many computers support high resolution such as 640 x 800 to 1024 x 768 this is the standard resolution for most computers. When you make the website make sure that it supports all such resolutions and it may reduces the scrolling over the pages this can be done by designing your website in terms of percentage and not in pixels.

3. Browser Compatibility: When you design your website make sure that the site is browser compatible that means your site should look nice on all this browsers Netscape, Internet explorer and Mozilla, when you make complicated designs in the HTML some code cannot be supported by some browsers but you also need to fix such problems so that your site should be supported by all the browsers.

4. Professional looking fonts: Many a time visitors just come on the site because of the fonts you use on your website, fonts on the websites are very important that can attract many visitors, do not try using some fancy font and colors that may not be available in some computers, some websites my take default font from your computer which sometime may be worse. So do not make use of some fancy and attractive colors for the fonts that may not be available in some visitor’s computer make the use of professional and common fonts such as Arial and Times new roman that suits most computers.

5. Use of images: Sometimes many websites need the use images that are important for the visitor point of view. Moreover some simple web designs are very much effective for the website. Don’t make the unnecessary use of the images in the website such that it will load slower, Instead of that try making the use of small icons or small images that loads faster and brings attractive effects to your website, some visitors are more concerned about the contents on the site than the images.

6. Check for broken links: When you complete your website always check for the broken links before uploading it on the web server. Check your website links in Dreamweaver right click any file and check for the broken links of the entire site or you can directly check by uploading the site and using some online tools that will check all the links in the website.

7. White space use: Always see your website is clean and neat from the visitor’s point of view do not make your website complex with too many images and background colors or fancy text colors, keep the website simple by reducing the graphics usage on the website and try making the use of white space on the site such that the white space brings more elegance and overall purity to your site.

Getting Started with Web Designing…

cliff — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:51:59 +0000

Designing a website can often become a time consuming process depending on your knowledge on the subject. Setting up a website and going through each of the steps meticulously might seem a little complicated but it isn’t an unachievable feat if you are trying to build a website from scratch. For starters, it is important to understand what a website is exactly.

A website is made up of inter related web pages that are accessible over the Internet, having a specific identity through a domain name that makes it easily identifiable. You can set up a website to sell an idea, market your own work, or use it as an effective forum for business or work development. So while designing a website you must keep in mind whether your website is meant to be personal, or profit making.

Websites that are commercial in nature cannot exactly be equated with an advertisement. When you watch an advertisement, it is over within a couple of minutes at the most, where the product is effectively highlighted. But a website is there for everyone to scrutinize carefully and even one small mistake can prove to be very problematic.

Making a website popular
For a website to appeal to people, the design of the website is crucial. When you come across a site that instantly reaches out to you, you want to find out more about it is trying to convey. The presentation is important, tacky colors or childish templates can ruin the entire image of a website. Also a whole load of information packed into one single page can become extremely boring after a point of time.

The website must be easy to cruise around; it should not be a mystery puzzle with a plethora of links but very little advice on what to do with those links. Pop up windows are extremely irritating, it distracts and does not add to the website as whole. The content of the website should be legible and not contrasted against bright backgrounds that make reading the text an impossible task. So we’ve mostly covered what exactly a website shouldn’t be. But lets also try and keep in mind what a website must be to be successful.

A good website will be easy flowing, and will attract the attention of the readers from the word go. Within the website, the pages should all be of a uniform design. The content of the site is essential in getting across the entire purpose of the site. Make sure it is crisp, with easy to follow instructions, and uses uncomplicated words to convey a point. The header, the colors, and the fonts all communicate how much thought went into the designing. If you aren’t a professional at this then avoid trying to put in complicated designs into the web page. Remember just try to keep it simple but it should look effective. Try and figure out which websites appeal to you and which you’ll avoid for life. Perhaps that will give you an insight into how most people relate to a website. For a beginner these steps are relatively easy to follow but useful if you’re just getting started up.

Before going into the precise details of website designing, lets look at the initial steps you must cover to get started. Now that you have an understanding of websites and what makes it work for people, things might just be a little easier.

Obtaining a Domain Name
First up is establishing an identity for your website. Try and comprehend whether your website’s identity is a key factor in setting it up. If yes, then getting hold of a domain name is of vital importance. There are several options you can choose from, but expect to spend a little on registering. For some specific names, the prices can be quite steep; it all depends on the availability.

Some places you can get your domain names registered-

a. http://www.godaddy.com/ – Go Daddy has been right on top for the domain name registration sites. The site offers a host of options for names that you can use. The variety is pretty incredible and they have a vast price range to suit your budget from domain names available for around $10 and prices can go up. Go Daddy also offers web hosting and other required services.

b. http://register.com/ – Register.com allows you to pick your domain name, set up and host your website along with privacy settings and email options. It is easy to navigate around the site and its user-friendly features help you decide on packages that are perfect for your pocket.

c. http://www.dynonames.com/ – At Dynonames, you are spoilt for choice. Plenty of options for domain registration, prices of all sorts. You’ll find the usual extensions like .com, .net, .org or pretty unique ones like .name, .tv, and .mobi among others.

Web Hosting
When you want to put your website on the World Wide Web for people to see, then the first thing you need is web hosting. Understanding the concept of web hosting is fairly simple. For a website to exist it needs a specific space on the web which is exactly what web hosting companies provide.
There is once again a range of options. You can opt for free web hosting but this has certain limitations obviously as compared to the paid ones. Free web hosting usually requires advertising on the site by other companies, which might be quite undesirable.

Options that you can go through if you’re looking for free web hosting-

a. http://host-ed.net – Host-ed is a good option for free web hosting because it supports PHP programming and provides disk space of around 200 MB of space. The server speed is fast and is ideal for anyone not willing to spend too much on hosting. Once you get a feel of their service you can upgrade to a paid plan.

b. http://www.hosthelpers.com – Use this site to host your websites completely free. The best part is that their hosting is absolutely advertisement free and comes loaded with plenty of features like the Fantastico script installer, PHP support, CGI/Perl and options for registering domain names as well.

c. http://www.bigfreehost.net – This website provides quite a swell deal for PHP web hosting with around 5,500 MB of space, free FTP account, along with free email accounts and file managers, not to mention a host of other stunning features. You can also go through their range of video tutorials to get a few learning tips.

d. http://www.doteasy.com/Services/WebHosting – Want to set up a personal website or starting off on your new business, then this place is right up your alley designed to meet all your web hosting needs for no cost at all. With a monthly bandwidth of 1 GB, features also include compatibility with Dreamweaver and Microsoft Frontpage. Free email and a very secure network assure you a good web hosting deal for no cost.

e. http://www.freehostking.com – If you are looking for a free web hosting service, without advertisements then give this a try. 1,000 MB of space is provided and you can use your own Domain.

The option for paid services is also in plenty. If you’re ready to dish out a sum of money then you can get your very own Web server and have full grasp over it. There are also options when the client is not provided with complete control over the Web server. This is done to allow web-hosting companies deliver good service since the user is not allowed to alter the server in any way, hence creating configuration problems.

While the Internet is swarmed with numerous companies that provide good web hosting for a sum of money, here’s a short list to get you started-

a. http://www.hostway.com – They allow a variety of hosting plans for starters to pros, prices ranging from $14 up to $90. You are promised unlimited monthly traffic and 500 GB space for the Ecommerce pro plan. Set up numerous email accounts and get phone and email support. You’re also guaranteed certain additional added services to spruce up your website and make it look smarter.

b. http://www.hostmysite.com – HostMySite is an award company that has been in the business for quite some time now and ensures top-notch work from its team of dedicated employees who are always ready to help you out. Their hundred percent money back promise is also quite interesting, so if you’re not satisfied that your money is returned but chances of this are very less. With a range of options to choose from you get a domain name free for signing up for a plan. So chances are there is no way you will be disappointed with their web hosting.

c. http://www.godaddy.com/ – Not only is Go Daddy popular for registering domain names but they provide web hosting options as well. Choose from the Economy Plan, Unlimited Plan and Deluxe Plan and get the best deal for your website.

d. http://www.dotster.com/products/hosting/plans – Start with their Basic plan for $5.75 per month, and use their organized guidelines to set up your own website. This is a good option if you’re not looking to spend too much and want to exercise some caution before indulging in something more expensive. Hike up the price a little and sign up for their Ultra plan for around $15 every month for better features, more space and a powerful deal for your website.

e. http://www.hostmonster.com – They offer the best deals with a free domain set up, and directing traffic to your website. A special offer of only $3.95 every month is most certainly a good deal if you’re getting started.

Getting kick start with web design

Designing a website is by no means an easy task. The art of designing a web site take months, if not years to master, and a creative and design inclined mind works best here. Usually, web sites are designed first in any graphic editing software handy. Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Fireworks are the two often used tools used to aid website design. The graphical elements of the web page, how they stack together, and the order in which they go are very important and often break or make a website.

The best way to get started with the actual process of designing is to plan and organize. Chalk out carefully what goes into the website. The information put up in the site is of vital importance, as we have established before. So let go off any information that is just not relevant. Although it can prove to be a somewhat complicated process it is extremely satisfying for someone with a knack for art and writing, along with some computing knowledge thrown in.

Start with a web-design template that can be purchased or custom made by you. Looking to purchase already designed templates to quick start the entire process of designing a website then you can check out these sites-

a. http://www.dreamtemplate.com – There are templates coming in several categories. Website templates with a range of themes, from abstract to fashion and beauty, these templates are designed for just about everything. Prices range from $1500 to over $3000 depending upon the template’s popularity and demand.

b. http://www.oswd.org – For almost five years, Open Source Web Design has allowed download of some amazing website templates for free. Many options are available, and you’re spoilt for choice. Download something cool and get started immediately.

c. http://www.buytemplates.net – The prices for templates are pretty affordable, and you can download several stock images. They promise you a money back offer if you are dissatisfied and a whole variety of choices with templates done in HTML coding to give your website the right look.

d. http://www.templatemonster.com – Looking for Flash templates? Then get them here for prices that are worth the professional look of the template.

e. http://templatenavigator.com/flashstore/show-category-futuristic.html – The futuristic templates offered here are pretty unique. These are flash templates that help you add a next-gen sci-fi look to your website.

If you are not looking for pre made templates and want to get down to the design yourself then edit your own template then use an HTML editor like Dream weaver and FrontPage. Templates can also be designed by using WYSIWYG, which stands for “What You See Is What You Get”. Once the web pages are created it is time to interlink them all to make a concrete website. This can be done with the help of Dream weaver.

The other option is to write the HTML code all by yourself using Notepad or some similar text editor in your computer. This process of writing your own code gives you complete freedom over the designing but a beginner’s knowledge on HTML coding is required to get into the process. Some sites you can go through with HTML coding are

a. http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/

b. http://www.htmlquick.com/articles/why-to-learn-html-code.html

c. http://www.html4newbies.com/

d. http://www.hypergurl.com/htmltutorial1.html

e. http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/

Things that you should keep mind
List down exactly what is to become a part of your website and then incorporate them intelligently without over cluttering the web page. First up is the Homepage that carefully outlines the sub sections and gets across the primary content of your web. The Homepage is the most important because it creates the first impression when a visitor is surfing through numerous sites. The other links featured on the page must be easy to navigate around. All web pages must lead back to this main Home Page because this feature is extremely convenient to a visitor who might end up lost and want to head back to the main page.

When you come across websites filled with links don’t you feel irritated? Keep this in mind when designing your own site because the lesser the number of clicks, the easier it is on the whole. Every click must produce valuable information because time is of utmost essence. People surfing websites don’t want to spend their entire day trying to figure out the whole load of facts you’re providing them with.
Include a Sitemap

Getting a sitemap is probably a good idea if you want to avoid all navigation trouble. The sitemap should have a detailed description of the several web pages and what it contains. This way your website visitor will have a clear idea of what each web page contains and can find their way around the web site easily.
Importance of the Text

The font of your text can make or break its look. Typography is essential in design; if they are catchy enough they get your attention right on. The colors of the text must be carefully selected to suit the layout of the entire web page as a whole. Proper sentence construction and spacing are key factors to top-notch presentation. Make sure that there are enough paragraphs and the content is divided into several sections to make it easier on the eye. And please do not bore everyone with long lines that run on for several miles at the end of which one completely loses track. Crisp language, moderate sized lines arranged in proper paragraphs in attractive colors can make your website extremely attractive and well liked. Always see to it that spellings are perfect because nothing can be uglier than wrong grammar or bad spelling.

Avoiding interruption
When you are designing a website keep in mind that you are targeting a particular audience. Keep their likes and dislikes in mind, take a survey, ask around, gather all the information you need to figure out what works best. Distractions on a website are a prime reason why visitors get annoyed. It is difficult to focus on the site content when blinking texts and images move around the page. There is nothing wrong in keeping the site simple but effective. Too many flashy objects or animated texts can just distract and not add to much value.
Pop-windows are again extremely not wanted. They spring up suddenly, right when you’re reading something interesting on a website and spoils the whole mood. So if you just keep an eye out for what works and what doesn’t you will find it a whole lot easier to make the right website.

Get original
It is highly possible you liked a website and would like to include features from there. That’s all good unless it’s obvious that you are directly copying things off them. Get original; take help from the many online tutorials available, read around a little on how to design properly and come up with ideas that are solely yours and not borrowed from other popular websites. Remember your readers are not stupid and are likely to identify copied content or ideas.

Remove dead links
Make sure that links that do not work are removed from the website. This ensures that your website is updated. It’s not really a good idea to have the visitor click on links and find that it takes them nowhere. Chances are, they will get fed-up and leave your site right away.
Can’t get past all those ads?

It is highly likely that you are only thinking of yourself while cluttering your website with innumerable advertisements. Of course they are rather unavoidable and we are not asking you to do away with them altogether. But when a visitor cannot get past a horde of advertisements the entire purpose of your website is pretty much lost. Do put ads in your web page but do not clutter the page, and make a selection of ads that you think might be in tune with the purpose of your website if that’s possible.

It is all about connecting with your readers, so keep in mind how a person usually relates to websites. The process of designing and implementation can be a little complicated but these simple tips and tricks are a good idea if you’re looking to start on designing websites.