Google’s website is clean, and the simplicity is unrivaled. Other sites may go for a more complex layout to please visitors. Whatever look you would like to achieve, it can be accomplished by understanding web design basics. You will reach your goals using this advice.
When developing a website, you must check out how it looks in various browsers. What you’re seeing in one browser may not actually be what other people are seeing. Make sure to research the browsers available. It’s also a good idea to send your website to someone who’s using another operating system in order to see if their browser and yours are compatible.
A good website should be compatible with multiple browsers, so you should test your website in various browsers to ensure that any visitor can view it correctly. What works in Internet Explorer may not necessarily show up correctly in Firefox, Chrome, or Safari. Before you set your site to go live, look at how every page shows up in all the major browsers.
Minimize your page sizes. If your site takes awhile to load, your visitors will lose interest. You don’t want your visitors waiting for each page to load because they may just end up leaving.
Make sure all links on your website are working properly before you publish your site. Nothing frustrates visitors more than clicking for a page they want and getting an error page instead. Feel free to manually check them or use some programs to scan and report the broken links.
Don’t use too many fonts when making your website. You should also look at how various fonts appear when seen on a computer screen. Smaller fonts can be challenging to see. Times New Roman is a great example. Most sites use Verdana, which is easily read in different colors and sizes.
Keep all of the site files you use as small as possible, regardless of design. The reason behind this is because the file sizes will affect how fast your website loads. A website that loads more quickly is always a top priority in web design. You must also be aware that everyone doesn’t have a high speed connection to the Internet. Perform a test of your website to be sure that it will load quickly on every speed of internet connection.
You need to check your website’s performance across a wide array of different web browsers. Each web browser has a slightly different way of how they illustrate the website, and in a couple of cases these little differences could have major effects on the experience for the user. There are various resources to find which browsers are more popular. Double check that your site works on every browser, and don’t forget about the mobile software as well.
Double check to make sure that all your links function properly. Do this often, and especially before uploading any of it to the server. This is necessary because when you have visitors come to your site they will find that the information they want to see is not available anymore and if this is to happen a lot on your site, they will leave. So you don’t run into problems, make sure you check to see if everything works.
Do not use pop-ups on your site. Incorporating ads is an important part of a website but they should not detract from your viewer’s experience. People will avoid your site. Keep your ads simple; there’s no need for wild pop-ups.
Hosting your own site may not be a wise idea, regardless of how much money you have to invest. As much as is practical, the web design should be your responsibility. But arrange for it to be hosted elsewhere so that you are not tied down into focusing on the website’s security.
Sign up for forums, newsletters and podcasts that discuss web design to help you keep up with the trends. Web designers can derive great benefits from newsletters, whether they are self-taught amateurs or experienced pros.
If you want to know the effectiveness of your site’s design, consider utilizing task-based usability tests. The idea of the tasks, generally speaking, is to find information that is contained somewhere within the website. If you have a well-designed website, then the task should be easy to complete by the user. However, if it’s not, it will give you insight into what areas on your website need improvement.
Make judicious use of graphics to give your site eye appeal. Using image text wrapping is one great technique. People get more into your site if they see that you put a lot of effort into it.
Host Videos
When looking to host videos on your site, you need to check with your particular web host to ensure that it’s allowed. Some servers do not have the ability to host videos. The files (FLV) take up a great deal of space on servers, so do not waste your time and efforts including them on your site; learn the rules beforehand.
For some people, their bandwidth is very low, and you need to consider this when putting videos up on your site. You may want to change your videos to 5,000 kb/s, but that still can be much quicker than someone’s internet connection. This means your user will be faced with a video that buffers frequently and loads very slowly.
Whether you’re going for a site with a minimal look or something which is jazzy and bright, the information you’ve read here will lead you down the right path. Why wait any longer? It is time to implement the suggestions offered here and start driving people to your site to generate all that you desire.