7 Factors To Consider When Creating Better Web Pages
http://www.articlesnow4u.com/articles/29393/1/7-Factors-To-Consider-When-Creating-Better-Web-Pages/Page1.html
Rakesh Packer
Rakesh Packer is a a consultant for a web services company in the UK offering web design and web hosting. By Rakesh Packer
Published on 25 June 2009
This article is a guide to help produce best practice web pages.
Whilst designing a web page may appear simple, there are some very important aspects to remember which make it more complex than simply pulling text and graphics together.
If you have a good understanding of the coding behind a website (such as HTML, CSS, ASP, PHP) then you have the ability to build your own pages and determine content, text size, colour, tables etc yourself. However, if you have less knowledge of the coding involved in building a website, you may choose to use a web design software package or decide to hire a web designer to help you.
Whichever method you choose to create your web pages, the first thing you need to do is put together a plan, i.e. What do you want your site to achieve? Who will be using the site? Etc.
Define Your Requirements.
What information are you trying to provide? What must be on the page? Are there videos? Links? Documents? Is it graphical or text heavy? All of these things have to be thought about before building the page to make sure these elemnets fit and work correctly. It's often beneficial to use simple paper models to see how all of the elements needed on your page can best fit together. Once you have a clearer idea of exactly what the page should be doing, it is far easier to go ahead and create it.
Identify Your Audience.
You need to know who you are attempting to reach before you design your web pages. Knowing your web audience will help you present information in a suitable manner to interest that audience. For example, there is no point in writing your content in a manner which people wouldn't understand.
Navigation.
One of the biggest frustrations for visitors to a website is not being able to find exactly what they are looking for. Most visitors want to be able to find content fairly easily and quickly. To that end, you should think about how users will navigate around your site. Will there be an overall sitemap, will you provide a main navigation on ever page, will you provide search boxes or drop down menus? If people can't easily get around your site, you may find the leave and don't return. Clean navigation is also important for search engines as it allows them to easily crawl your website to evaluate your content.
Page Response Time and Speed.
Loading speeds are becoming important, particularly regarding the social media items that can be pulled onto a page. It's no longer difficult to pull videos and photo albums directly from the likes of Flickr or YouTube. If your page has too many images, too much text, to many feeds or videos then you may find it doesn't load fast enough. If this is the case on your broadband, think how it will be for those on dial-up internet or slower broadband connections!
Graphics.
When adding graphics to your site, make sure they are in a suitable format (JPEG and GIF are the most popular). When inserting shapes, lines, backgrounds, buttons or any graphics that only have a few colours, a GIF file is the most suitable option. JPEG files are best suited for pictures. Also be aware of the size of the file you save. The larger the file size, the slower your web pages will load. Also make sure to use "Alt" (alternative) text on your web page images.
Fonts and Colours.
These should be based on how best you believe they can help present your message to your intended audience. Small fonts aren't suitable for those with reading difficulties and certain coloured text on specific background colours are difficult to read (e.g. white text on a yellow backgroundorange or text on a red background). Fonts don't always load correctly on different browsers either, so make sure to test before confirming which fonts you are going to use.
Headlines.
An important factor when choosing a layout is a headline. This is likely to be the first thing your visitors will see and is predominantly what they will use to establish what content is on the page. Make sure it grabs attention and is relevant. For instance you wouldn't write "information on product X" if the page was actually about product Y.
Cross-broswer compatibility.
Make sure you test your web pages on a number of different browsers as your coding can appear different in different browsers. This will ensure you are not alienating any visitors that are using specific web browsers.
Web design can be a simple or complex process depending on your own personal creative and development ability, and the tips above are intended to give you a helping hand.
If you have a good understanding of the coding behind a website (such as HTML, CSS, ASP, PHP) then you have the ability to build your own pages and determine content, text size, colour, tables etc yourself. However, if you have less knowledge of the coding involved in building a website, you may choose to use a web design software package or decide to hire a web designer to help you.
Whichever method you choose to create your web pages, the first thing you need to do is put together a plan, i.e. What do you want your site to achieve? Who will be using the site? Etc.
Define Your Requirements.
What information are you trying to provide? What must be on the page? Are there videos? Links? Documents? Is it graphical or text heavy? All of these things have to be thought about before building the page to make sure these elemnets fit and work correctly. It's often beneficial to use simple paper models to see how all of the elements needed on your page can best fit together. Once you have a clearer idea of exactly what the page should be doing, it is far easier to go ahead and create it.
Identify Your Audience.
You need to know who you are attempting to reach before you design your web pages. Knowing your web audience will help you present information in a suitable manner to interest that audience. For example, there is no point in writing your content in a manner which people wouldn't understand.
Navigation.
One of the biggest frustrations for visitors to a website is not being able to find exactly what they are looking for. Most visitors want to be able to find content fairly easily and quickly. To that end, you should think about how users will navigate around your site. Will there be an overall sitemap, will you provide a main navigation on ever page, will you provide search boxes or drop down menus? If people can't easily get around your site, you may find the leave and don't return. Clean navigation is also important for search engines as it allows them to easily crawl your website to evaluate your content.
Page Response Time and Speed.
Loading speeds are becoming important, particularly regarding the social media items that can be pulled onto a page. It's no longer difficult to pull videos and photo albums directly from the likes of Flickr or YouTube. If your page has too many images, too much text, to many feeds or videos then you may find it doesn't load fast enough. If this is the case on your broadband, think how it will be for those on dial-up internet or slower broadband connections!
Graphics.
When adding graphics to your site, make sure they are in a suitable format (JPEG and GIF are the most popular). When inserting shapes, lines, backgrounds, buttons or any graphics that only have a few colours, a GIF file is the most suitable option. JPEG files are best suited for pictures. Also be aware of the size of the file you save. The larger the file size, the slower your web pages will load. Also make sure to use "Alt" (alternative) text on your web page images.
Fonts and Colours.
These should be based on how best you believe they can help present your message to your intended audience. Small fonts aren't suitable for those with reading difficulties and certain coloured text on specific background colours are difficult to read (e.g. white text on a yellow backgroundorange or text on a red background). Fonts don't always load correctly on different browsers either, so make sure to test before confirming which fonts you are going to use.
Headlines.
An important factor when choosing a layout is a headline. This is likely to be the first thing your visitors will see and is predominantly what they will use to establish what content is on the page. Make sure it grabs attention and is relevant. For instance you wouldn't write "information on product X" if the page was actually about product Y.
Cross-broswer compatibility.
Make sure you test your web pages on a number of different browsers as your coding can appear different in different browsers. This will ensure you are not alienating any visitors that are using specific web browsers.
Web design can be a simple or complex process depending on your own personal creative and development ability, and the tips above are intended to give you a helping hand.