Web Design Tips for Beginners

I was actually about to make the part two of my Web Design Tutorials but then I decided to throw this one out first. These tips are all basic in general. They are very easy to do and apply whether you have a personal or a business site.

So first of, here are the DONT’s :

1. Do not use multi colored background as it may affect the visibility of the texts.
2. Do not use a very dark background and use light colored fonts such as white, yellow or light green as it will strain the eyes of the reader.
3. Do not use multi colored font colors. It also strains the eyes of the reader.
4. Multiple animated gifs in the webpage can slow down the loading of the page and at the same time visitors who wants to stay awhile might get annoyed with it.
5. Try to get rid of pop-ups. Some visitors hates sites with popups. They are annoying and also slows down the loading of the page as popups are also loading the content at the same time. And some other people also consider popups as spams that will lead them to a site and end up compromising their computers. They will never come back again.
6. Music is cool like the ones in Myspace or Friendster. But in cases like personal or business website, it’s too annoying to hear the same music all over again. If you have the turn on and off feature, it would be better.
7. Do not put huge photos on your page. If your images are too big for the page, make a thumbnail and link it to your full sized image. This will make the loading of the page even more faster and gives the visitors an option whether they would like to see the full image or not.
8. Do not cut your page into a thousand slices.
9. Do not use custom downloaded fonts. Visitors won’t be able to see it unless they also have the same font installed on their computers. Use default fonts such as Arial, Verdana, Times New Roman, Georgia and etc.
10. If ever you need to show up custom or unique fonts in your website, make it in an image.
11. Do not use CENTER alignment on everything in your website.

After the DONT’s comes the DOs:

1. Have a theme and good set of color combinations. It makes the visitors think they are on the same site.
2. If possible, use the same font throughout the site.
3. Have your animations cut into a minimum. Use it to catch attention for promos or announcements.
4. Use browser safe colors.
5. Make your site browser compatible – do not use scripts, applets, DHTML, etc. that are only compatible with one browser
6. If you’re making a flash based website and want to be more friendly with other visitors, make an html based website.
7. Design the site for the people who are going to visit, not for yourself You might like bold, bright colors, but a funeral directors site should use subtle colors and hues.
8. Always have the HOME link in every pages.
9. Lastly, have fun.

These tips are all based on what I have learned through years of experience. I also started with a rubbish website. Keep reading and browsing other websites. Practice and experience will improve your designs eventually.

Good luck!