Basic Designing Principals

My Basic Principles of Site Design:

Today if we see the web its full of websites, 2.0 is introduced no more small fonts websites anymore. The World Wide Web, not just a computer thing but a media tool, is filled with a lot of websites. And with the low cost of putting up websites and the technical skill required, the internet is littered with poorly constructed sites. Professionally built websites have smart principles that make them successful on the net. When you read and understand this variety of principles, you won't be far from those professionally built websites. If you want to add a good point or principle to this page, contact me i will be looking forward to see your principals also at zanjum@gmail.com. Good Luck!

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What's Hot What's Not What You can Do

What's Hot
Remember three words: clean, simple and fast. If you can accomplish this on your home page and throughout the site, you're well on your way.

Intuitive, easy-to-use interfaces. Unless your website is some kind of a game or tease, you want the viewer to be able to get where they want to go as quickly as possible. Your navigation should be consistent. It's also a good idea to add alternative text links as well as graphics and ALT tags to images so your site is just as easy to navigate for the "14.4 graphics-off brigade".

Show the viewer what they want to see. The big difference between a website and other media is the amount of choice the viewer has. Don't hide areas down some long hierarchical tree; make it easy to find them, with search and especially site map functions. Always use the "three click rule" - any part of a website should be reachable within three clicks or less from any other part of the site.

Make your graphics fit. If you're going to use graphics on your site, make them fit both in file and physical size (remember there are still a lot of people using 640 x 480 resolution or laptops). Graphics should enhance the content. If a picture says a thousand words, use the picture. Choose backgrounds that enhance the viewing pleasure, rather than fight with the text. Don't forget to coordinate your text, link and visited link colours to your graphics.

Use animation wisely. Probably over 90% of your web audience will be able to see an animated graphic. A well-designed animation with a small file size can add another dimension to a website. Although plug-ins can do a lot to completely animate your pages, the jury is still out on whether they are used by a large enough proportion of users to make them worthwhile. If you do use plug-in technology, it's wise to offer both online help and an alternative.

Content is king. I know you've heard it all before but it couldn't be more true on the web. We're working in an environment which has no walls, won't run out of paper and always has enough shelf space.

Streaming audio and video. As the years progress and more people move to modems with high speeds, we see streaming audio and video becoming a fantastic enhancement to websites. Plug-ins such as Real Technology from www.real.com are too good to ignore.

What's Not
Coordinate colors and fonts. Too many excellent, color-coordinated sites are ruined by default link colors. By now, most viewers know that the link and visited link colors don't have to be bright blue and magenta. With the font face tag, it's now possible to use more fonts creatively but try not to make your site like a ransom note. To be safe, use a maximum of two font faces. Remember Macs (Helvetica) and PCs (arial) have different default fonts.

Backgrounds for backgrounds' sake. We've come a long way but one thing that screams of 1996 is light-colored, textured backgrounds. Not only do these make designing coordinated graphics difficult, they usually do nothing to enhance the site. Choose a color from the 216 web palette and drop the background image.

Dead-end pages. Don't send the viewer out to a page with no way back and no way out. Consistent intuitive navigation is essential on every page of a site.

Obscure plug-ins and tags. The more difficult you make it for someone to see you site, the smaller the size of your audience. Why is something so obvious so abused? If your site is browser- or plug-in-dependent, you reduce your visibility tremendously. If you are building a commercial site in this way, it is best to offer and alternative that's visible to the widest audience.

What You can Do
Design aside, there's a lot you can do to help further the growth of the web. Here are a few suggestions.

If you can, ask companies that you deal with for their web address.
Send in feedback. If a site is great, tell them. If it's junk, tactfully tell them why.
Enter website contests. You never know, you might win.
Join website update lists so you'll know when a site is updated automatically.
Rather than reach for the Yellow Pages, UBD or similar, try and online search instead.
Use e-mail responses instead of phone and fax. If it takes an unacceptable time for the company to reply, ask them if they'd find that acceptable by phone or fax.
If you have a website, put its address on everything. For instance: cars, buildings, T-shirts, sponsorships and stationery.

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				My Basic Principles of Site Design: Today if we see the web its full of websites, 2.0 is introduced no more small fonts websites anymore. The World Wide Web, not just a computer thing but a media tool, is filled with a lot of websites. And with the low cost of putting up websites and the technical skill required, the internet is littered with poorly constructed sites. Professionally built websites have smart principles that make them successful on the net. When you read and understand this variety of principles, you won't be far from those professionally built websites. If you want to add a good point or principle to this page, contact me i will be looking forward to see your principals also at zanjum@gmail.com. Good Luck! Choose a Section to Continue What's Hot What's Not What You can Do What's Hot Remember three words: clean, simple and fast. If you can accomplish this on your home page and throughout the site, you're well on your way. Intuitive, easy-to-use interfaces. Unless your website is some kind of a game or tease, you want the viewer to be able to get where they want to go as quickly as possible. Your navigation should be consistent. It's also a good idea to add alternative text links as well as graphics and ALT tags to images so your site is just as easy to navigate for the "14.4 graphics-off brigade". Show the viewer what they want to see. The big difference between a website and other media is the amount of choice the viewer has. Don't hide areas down some long hierarchical tree; make it easy to find them, with search and especially site map functions. Always use the "three click rule" - any part of a website should be reachable within three clicks or less from any other part of the site. Make your graphics fit. If you're going to use graphics on your site, make them fit both in file and physical size (remember there are still a lot of people using 640 x 480 resolution or laptops). Graphics should enhance the content. If a picture says a thousand words, use the picture. Choose backgrounds that enhance the viewing pleasure, rather than fight with the text. Don't forget to coordinate your text, link and visited link colours to your graphics. Use animation wisely. Probably over 90% of your web audience will be able to see an animated graphic. A well-designed animation with a small file size can add another dimension to a website. Although plug-ins can do a lot to completely animate your pages, the jury is still out on whether they are used by a large enough proportion of users to make them worthwhile. If you do use plug-in technology, it's wise to offer both online help and an alternative. Content is king. I know you've heard it all before but it couldn't be more true on the web. We're working in an environment which has no walls, won't run out of paper and always has enough shelf space. Streaming audio and video. As the years progress and more people move to modems with high speeds, we see streaming audio and video becoming a fantastic enhancement to websites. Plug-ins such as Real Technology from www.real.com are too good to ignore. What's Not Coordinate colors and fonts. Too many excellent, color-coordinated sites are ruined by default link colors. By now, most viewers know that the link and visited link colors don't have to be bright blue and magenta. With the font face tag, it's now possible to use more fonts creatively but try not to make your site like a ransom note. To be safe, use a maximum of two font faces. Remember Macs (Helvetica) and PCs (arial) have different default fonts. Backgrounds for backgrounds' sake. We've come a long way but one thing that screams of 1996 is light-colored, textured backgrounds. Not only do these make designing coordinated graphics difficult, they usually do nothing to enhance the site. Choose a color from the 216 web palette and drop the background image. Dead-end pages. Don't send the viewer out to a page with no way back and no way out. Consistent intuitive navigation is essential on every page of a site. Obscure plug-ins and tags. The more difficult you make it for someone to see you site, the smaller the size of your audience. Why is something so obvious so abused? If your site is browser- or plug-in-dependent, you reduce your visibility tremendously. If you are building a commercial site in this way, it is best to offer and alternative that's visible to the widest audience. What You can Do Design aside, there's a lot you can do to help further the growth of the web. Here are a few suggestions. If you can, ask companies that you deal with for their web address. Send in feedback. If a site is great, tell them. If it's junk, tactfully tell them why. Enter website contests. You never know, you might win. Join website update lists so you'll know when a site is updated automatically. Rather than reach for the Yellow Pages, UBD or similar, try and online search instead. Use e-mail responses instead of phone and fax. If it takes an unacceptable time for the company to reply, ask them if they'd find that acceptable by phone or fax. If you have a website, put its address on everything. For instance: cars, buildings, T-shirts, sponsorships and stationery. <------ Back to Articles Home \| Articles \| Our Prices \| Portfolio \| Testimonials \| Privacy Policy \| Contact