Basic Web Design Tips
When designing the layout of a web page, there are certain basic web design tips that will make the page more appealing and easier for visitors to navigate.
Make The Most Of The Upper Left Hand Corner
Putting your business name and logo in the upper left hand corner of your home page is the first web design tip. If you are designing a web site primarily for an English speaking audience, the upper left hand corner of your web site is the most valuable space of all. By nature, people who read left to right, top to bottom, also look at web sites the same way. In fact, this is why all Microsoft applications put the file command in the upper left hand corner of the screen because they are most commonly used. People are most likely to remember what they see in that space. Use it wisely.
Make Links Easy To Click
Small links, made of tiny text, are hard for a user to click. So web design tip number two consists of including more than one word in a text link. Better yet, use a big button with link text on it - just make sure the text is big enough to read. And don't put your cascading menu options too close together, as it makes moving through the submenus too difficult to do.
Stay Above The Fold
In the newspaper business, above the fold means the stories and photos that are above the fold that newspapers make so they will fit in newspaper vending machines. The story above the fold is what gets the person walking down the street to stop and buy a paper. It's the same in web design, only above the fold means the portion of the screen that the user can see without scrolling. Web design tip number three is that it's what's above the scroll that gets the person who is surfing from site to site to stop and spend more time on your site.
Design The Look And The Interface Separately
The home page is the most important page on the site, so your client should have several from which to choose. Use and image editing software, or even a PowerPoint slide, to create a few mock-up home page designs for your client to review. Don't worry about the links; blank buttons will do to show where the navigation will go. Web design tip number four is to get the client's approval on the overall look of the site before you set up the navigation and coding.
