Essential Web Design Techniques For Beginners
It has never been easier for anyone who wants to build a website to do so. The tools and knowledge necessary to create your own website are now easily and freely available online. However, while building a website is easy, building a website well is a lot more difficult. Many people dive straight into building their first website without giving much thought to their long-term plans.
Whether your website is a personal project, or it is a money-making venture in its own right, there are certain principles and techniques of web design that every budding designer should know about.
Keep it Simple
This is a great piece of advice to follow in any creative field, whether it’s web design, painting, sculpture, or even writing. When you complicate things for no reason other than to demonstrate that you can, you will start to make poor and short-sighted design choices. Some web designers make the mistake of thinking that every website they design needs to show off their most advanced skills. In fact, the sign of a truly great website designer is the ability to use restraint.
Don’t add any features to your website that add very little to its main purpose or improve the user experience.
Keep it Updated
There is nothing more likely to make a user leave your site straight away than seeing that the homepage hasn’t been updated for a number of months or years. Take a look at Utahpeoplespost.com, notice how they present today’s date at the top of the page, while also making sure that the first content the user sees is their newest articles.
If you are making a website for our own personal use, you should already have some idea of how you will continue to generate and add content to it. However, it is websites for businesses that are more likely to end up being neglected. Try adding a blog to your business’ website and populate it with articles relevant to your customers.
Consider Your Content
Some people assume that the issue of what content will appear on the site is separate to design considerations. In actual fact, the content that will ultimately appear on a website can have a significant impact on how it is designed. For example, a website that serves up news articles only to its users will benefit from a different design approach than, say, a website that serves users videos.
Think About Your Typography
The typefaces and fonts that you use on your website can have a significant impact on the readability of your website, as well as how easy it is to browse and navigate. If you have the skills and know-how to devise your own custom font, this is an excellent way of giving your website some distinction. However, even using pre-set fonts, by experimenting with different combinations you can emphasize different aspects of each page.
Web design is one of those skills which is easy to pick up, but difficult to master. If you want to succeed as a web designer, either professionally or as a hobby, then you need to know the essential basic tips.
