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Basic principles of web design
Home Page
Home page should clearly indicate what the site is about. Provide top level navigation on the first page, your logo, and tell the visitor what can be found on your web site. Your home page should be informative, and should feature a call-to-action (eg. call us today for a free quote/sign up for our free newsletter). Home page is the place where the visitor decides what he will do, click on some of your links, or leave the site. If you running any special offers, make sure to provide link to that incentive on your home page.
If you decide to implement flash intro on your first page (not recommended!), make sure to give the user the option to skip the flash intro. The link “skip intro” should be outside of the flash file, otherwise you will force the visitor to wait until the Flash movie is loaded.
Navigation structure
Place the navigation where the people are used too looking for it. Keep the navigation system same on ALL pages. You should ensure that your site is consistent across all pages so visitors don't become frustrated with having to look for it in a different place on each page.
Font size
Your font size should be enough big so your text can be read easily. Don't loose your visitors because of font size. Optimal size arguably is around 12 points. Break big chunks of texts into paragraphs to make them easy to follow.
Line Length
The length of a line of type should be comfortable to read. The optimal line length for printed materials is about 10 to 12 words, or 60 to 70 characters. If the line is too long the reader must search for the beginning of it; if it is too short it will break up words or phrases awkwardly.
Creating emphasis
Creating emphasis is an important and integral part of designing and typesetting as it can help direct and inform the reader. When nothing in particular is highlighted, the page is bland and difficult to break into easy to absorb chunks. On the other hand, when your visitor is led to believe that every word is important then your page starts to look like a battlefield and becomes difficult to read!
Graphics
Do your best to show clear, attractive photos of your product. If you offer a service, find a photo which will best complement it. However, be careful about file size. Don't compress your image to a level where it is no longer clear, but ensure that the graphic is optimised to make it load faster.
Gif vs. JPEG
Less experienced web designers often use the wrong format to publish their graphics. Here are few guidelines which will help you to avoid these mistakes.
Generally speaking, if your image has solid blocks of colour, eg. logos, text etc, use GIF. If you are saving a photograph – save it as JPEG.
Speed
Do your best to reduce the download time. We live in a busy world and people are not will to wait long time. Try to reduce the size of your graphics as much as possible without destroying the image. Also keep your page code at a minimum - this provides a good argument for using CSS rather than tables to produce your pages as it separates the design file from the content, and the design therefore only needs to be downloaded once. (See our fact sheet about web standards for more info...)
Test before publishing
Remember to test your website across browsers and ensure that you have performed spell checks before publishing. You should also vigourously check all the links on your site before notifying potential clients that it has gone live.
This article is written by: Zoran Makrevski, the president of SEO.Goto.gr. We offer customized and affordable SEO Services.
