Get ya tips out, or something like that. (General Web Design Tips)

Member Name: theanarchistkid

Product:	General Web Design Tips
Date:	21/03/01 (213 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's remarkably simple.

Disadvantages: It can take a long time to get it right.

Website design is a subjective topic and many people will have completely different views. When making a website there are a few fundamental aspects that have to be considered fully. These are:

Content
How you're going to make it
Look and Feel
Ease of use
Hosting
Advertising
Compatibility

These are not the only things to consider but if you do think about these before you even start desiging your site you will create something which is much better. Before I talk in too much details about the ins and outs of different designs, I'll give a quick insight into how, why and who can design and build a website. The primary 'language' that makes the world wide web appear as it does is called HTML. This stands for Hypertext Markup Language and is widely acknowledged as being remarkably simple to start with, but then gaining in complexity when you want to do more with it. HTML is a simple language to learn because its structure is so straight-forward. The primary concept behind it is that of tags which normally consist of <Open Tag> and a </Close Tag>. Once you've learnt the tags and their attributes, the rest is nice and simple. I won't delve into too much detail, but there are plenty of websites around that offer HTML tutorials, or failing that, buy a decent book. Even if you plan to design your site in Frontpage or another WYSIWYG editor, it's a good idea to have a little knowledge of HTML.

If you don't fancy learning the finer details of HTML, you can use what are known as WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editors to do all of the coding for you. These work just like desktop publishing programs in as far as you just lay out the components of a page as you see fit, and the program will generate all of the HTML automatically. There are various products around which offer this facility - the two main ones being MS Front Page and Macromedia Dream Weaver. If you want more information
on the pros and cons of each package, Dooyoo has loads of reviews for each of them. I have used Front Page extensively in the past for designing my websites and I have a fairly good idea of its merits and weaknesses. If you are a total beginner, go for Front Page over anything else because it's very simple. If however, you want to create more complex sites and have a bit more freedom, either hand-code in HTML or use Dreamweaver.

Front Page is infamous for creating very bloated HTML code that is much more complex than is strictly required. The downside of this is that the files that it creates are both very large and hard to edit manually. The truth is that this problem has been more or less solved in later versions of the software but if you are using an earlier version than Front Page 2000 you may experience some difficulties. Front Page also has what are known as Front Page Extensions, which I may touch upon later.

One thing that many people seem to ask when making a website is how to attract visitors to it. The truth is that the only way to make your website really popular is to give it some content that people want to read. If your site has nothing on it that is of interest to anyone other than yourself, you’re going to struggle to attract any visitors. The main things that you need to do are be original, be interesting and also be useful. Take into account the target audience when you design your site because this can make a difference to several design criteria.

To appeal to as many people as possible, you have to make your website as accessible as you possibly can. The way to achieve this isn’t to aim for the lowest common denominator at the expense of design flair but you do have to design to a standard. People recommend that currently you try and design your site to work in any browser newer than Netscape Navigator 4. Netscape doesn’t support a lot of the things that Internet Explorer does, but it does suppor
t all of the major standards so it’s a good thing to aim at. Internet Explorer is much more popular than its alternatives at the moment, but you should still make sure that your site doesn’t use browser specific tags.

Screen resolutions which people use are generally either 800x600 or 1024x768 or higher. There is no point designing a site which only looks good at 640x480 because you won’t be utilising the higher resolutions of other screens. Most people use 1024x768 but there are still a lot of people that use 800x600 so it is important not to exclude these people. The main thing to consider when planning the design of your site is compatibility. Make sure that you don’t exclude massive proportions of your target audience just because you make the site too small or too big.

If you are planning to design a site properly and you have a lot of times on your hand, a lot of people suggest that you draw a pen and paper plan of the site first. At the very least, come up with a plan of what you hope to include on the site and where pictures are going to go because this provides an ideal framework to build upon. Microsoft Front Page features several pre-set ‘themes’ which are ready made designs which can just be applied to your site. This saves a lot of time and keeps things simple.

If you are aiming your site at kids, make sure that you make it easy to use. Obviously, some kids have more Internet skills than some adults, but you have to assume that they don’t. Make buttons bigger, text bigger and generally try to keep the site bright and interesting. This is important if you want to keep them interested in your site and try and persuade them to return at another date. If you are aiming at younger children, add some information for parents to read beforehand which gives a brief outline of the content of the site just so they can check that there’s nothing on there that they don’t want their chil
dren to see.

Don't try and make your site needlessly flashy. Some people try and include hit counters, guest books, scrolling text, pop-up windows and so many other little tricks that they just get annoying after about 10 seconds. The best sites in my opinion are those that don't do anything too flashy with your browser and display information clearly and attractively without being over the top. I won't discuss designing websites using Flash in this opinion, but if you are an experienced Flash user, then I would recommend that you try and use it as much as possible wherever it's appropriate. If you're new to Flash, don't use it just to look impressive because my experience with Flash is that it's easy to make very ugly things with it if you don't know what you're doing. I will admit to this, and I have made several Flash monstrosities in the past.

The actual design of the website is ultimately up to you and there are probably no people in the world that can agree on what makes an attractive site. From my experience though, the main things that you should try and include are as follows:
Simple and uncluttered: When designing a site, it is easy to try and make it look as professional as possible by making it look complicated. The truth is though that the best looking sites are the ones that contain relatively short blocks of text and a lot of spacing and pictures. This appeals to viewers more because it looks easier to read and it appears to be more accessible.
Plain colours: If you’re aiming a site at adults, just keep the colours plain. There’s no need to include bright yellow text on a blue background. I’ve found that subtle shades of green on a black background tend to work well, but it is a subjective subject.
Simple background: Don’t add a complex background image to the site if it’s going to compromise readability. Just keep a nice simple tiled pattern or even just u
se a plain colour such as black rather than having a photograph.
Keep it simple: Don’t add little animations everywhere unless they are vital. Don’t add java-script to the page that prevents right clicking. Don’t use fancy roll-over effects on buttons because they often fail and look tacky. Just keep it simple and clear and you’ll be fine.

Obviously, designing a website isn’t the easiest thing to do, but it is a lot easier than most people seem to think. It doesn’t require L337 H4X1NG skills or anything, it just requires time and patience. Remember, that if you’re struggling, there are plenty of tutorials on the Internet or failing that there will be plenty of forums which will answer any questions that you have. My main advice for designing your site, is plan carefully and take your time. Remember that there is no hurry and you can complete it at your own pace.

If you're looking for advice on website hosting and domain names, I've written a few reviews on these, so feel free to read them.

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