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In part1 of this article I covered defining the purpose of
your website and planning it on paper.
In this second part I will cover designing the page elements
of your site. The look and feel of a site is very important,
and it must convey what your site is about.
A site for an artist would be a lot different in style to a
site selling electrical goods.
Having planned your site already on paper you know where you
want the page elements to go, but now you must give some
thought to their design.
What will they look like? Do you want a simple background to
your page or do you want something a bit different?
One of the most important things to consider is the download
time of a page. Most people won't want to hang around while
complicated large graphics slow down the time it takes for
them to view your site.
Keep the background simple. White of a very pale colour with
dark text is best. If you do want an image don't go for
anything complex or large. Make the image file size as small
as possible and make it very pale so that you can easily
read the type over the top. Don't make the background image
fight against the text!!
Typeface
Only use one typeface in your website. Just decide on a
typeface and stick to it.
Text
Just use a normal size type for the main text on your page.
The page heading should be a larger size and maybe in bold
as well.
Use a dark text on a light coloured background. Reading text
on a computer screen is always harder on the eyes. Most
people wouldn't appreciate red text on a green background!!
They would probably leave your page very quickly.
Break the page up with lots of headings and small clumps of
text. People read differently on a computer screen in
comparison to reading a book or a paper. They tend to scan a
page looking for interesting bits of information that stand
out.
If you want to highlight any words that are very important
either use bold or a second colour. Don't underline text as
it will look like a link.
Navigation
The main navigation bar is usually on the left of the page
or under the header.
Make the main navigation bar consistent throughout the site
and give it plenty of space so that it's easily seen.
Don't use large graphics for navigation buttons as it makes
the page slow to download.
Rollover buttons can look good but make sure that the
graphics are optimised first so that they are as small as
possible.
Debabblizer is great for optimising images and supports many
different file types.
http://www.equilibrium.com/Internet/Equil/Products/DeBabeli
zer/index.htm
If you don't know how to create rollover buttons they are
very simple and just require two small images both of which
are the same size.
Make sure that both graphics are in the same directory and
name them image1.gif and image2.gif
Here is a tutorial that you may find useful, it shows you
how to build rollover buttons using javascript. You don't
need any knowledge of programing.
http://www.p5interactive.com/home2/rolltut/roloverl.html
A good graphics program which is inexpensive and capable of
doing lots of things with graphics is Paint Shop Pro.
Download it from here at just $99 and get $75 free software
http://www.digitalriver.com/dr/v2/ec_MAIN.Entry17c?CID=8674
0&SID=5152&SP=10007&PN=5&PID=534751&DSP=&CUR=840&PGRP=0&CAC
HE_ID=86740
You can create images using it's advanced drawing tools or
import your own.
Also if you use graphics make sure that you use alt tags
with descriptions. this is a good idea as if the buttons
take a few seconds to download the alt tag will appear
first. It's also good for the visually impaired.
If you use plain text links in your navigation bar instead
of just giving the page name e.g. "blue widgets", make it
more interesting encouraging visitors to click on the link.
e.g. "For an outstanding, hard wearing blue widget click
here"
Logo
Design a logo for your site. This will appear at the top of
every page in your site. Keep it simple and make sure that
the image doesn't take more than a couple of seconds to
download. Design it on paper first and then create it using
a graphics program.
Building a website isn't difficult. Knowing what your site
is about, carefull planning,(maybe some basic knowledge of
HTML) and some software is really all you need.
There are also many tutorials and articles on the internet
which can help.
Kathy has her own mlm online business which you can visit at
http://www.healthandbeautytowealth.co.uk
http://www.healthandbeautytowealth.co.uk/articles/articles.
She has written several other articles which you can find at
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