Easy Website Design Tips: Design Don’ts
So you’ve decided to put up your first website- congratulations. Before you start doing some easy website design, though, you should be aware of the design no-nos. There are a lot of elements out there that you may be tempted to put in, but these will make your site visually unappealing for visitors. And if your site is visually uninteresting, then your visitors will be less inclined to stay and see what’s inside.
1.GIF animations and scrolling text. These were popular, when the Internet was young, and they seemed cool at the time. If you want your new site to look professional, then get rid of all those GIF animations. Both animated GIFs and scrolling text serve as distractions, and makes your site looks uninspired and dated.
2.Excessively large fonts and bad font colors. Setting your fonts against a badly-chosen colored background — like neon green in a white box — may make your text unreadable. And don’t try to increase readability by making your fonts larger. Just use contrasting, tasteful colors - stick to around 12 points of Arial or Verdana, as these fonts are the most easily recognized by all browsers.
3.Large file sizes for images. Your Internet-savvy visitors want your page to load quickly so they can start reading. Most users now have a short attention span- if they have to wait for your page to load for more than a few seconds, then they’ll start getting restless and may just move on to another page. Make your file sizes smaller. Keep your image file size to about 50KB per photo for medium-sized images. There are many free graphics programs you can find online to help you with easy website design.
4.Long blocks of text. There are many ways you can make your text unreadable by using the wrong layout. Place text in columns, instead of stretching it out from one end of the screen to the other. Columns make it easier for people to keep their place when reading a lot of text. But that doesn’t mean that very long columns are okay too. If your text goes a lot longer than one screen height (about 768 pixels on the majority of monitors), then put the rest of the content on another page.
These are only a few of the design mistakes that inexperienced designers make. The rule of thumb for people who want easy website design is: design for your target market. Put in design elements that you think will appeal to your visitors, not just to yourself. Learn to look at your designs from a user’s perspective. The page that attracts users is attractive, well thought-out in presentation, and fast-loading. Remember, you are only one of millions of pages out there, so if you don’t make a good first impression, you may lose that first-time visitor for good.
Because your average user has a short attention span, you want their first impression of your site to be a good one. When putting in design elements, steer clear of distracting scrolling text or GIF animations. Keep your text easy to read by using high-contrast colors, and keeping your font sizes consistent. Stick to small image file sizes, so help your page load faster. Easy website design revolves around designing according to the visitor’s needs, so you have to learn to appreciate your design like a potential visitor would.
- Tem Balanco
