A Number Of Useful Web Design Principles
May 23, 2010 by Barb Rasmussen
Filed under Web Design
If you are busy developing a website for yourself, or you would just like to be able to understand your web designer when he talks to you in that curious technical dialect they tend to use, the web design tips that follow will come in very useful.
Custom Error Pages: These simply mean that if someone clicks on a link to a specific page on your site that no longer exists, he should not just get an error message. He should be taken to a user-friendly page where there are links to the other pages on your website. This way you won’t lose a potential client.
Make sure non-www prefix also works: Many people don’t type ‘www’ in front of the domain name when they go to a website. Depending on the settings of your web server, this might take him to an error page. Make sure that you set up your site to work both with the ‘www’ prefix and without it.
Don’t make your website slow with huge graphics: You might like the 800×600 picture of your reception desk. That does not mean your website visitors will like waiting for it to load every time. And don’t just force the browser to display a smaller size – it still has to load the full image before it can do that. So rather re-size it in a graphics editor before the time.
Use a favicon: What is a favicon? It’s simply a small picture that is displayed in your browser’s address bar when you visit a particular website. It could be a small version of your logo, or some other image that you feel will remind people of your site instantly when they see it again. It’s cool and it’s professional.
Register more than one domain name: Relative to ten years ago, domain names are very cheap to register at the moment. If you have more than one domain name (they can all point to the same website), your chances if being found online are simply that much better. It will also prevent competitors from registering a name similar to yours and thereby tricking visitors away from your website. As a very least you should register all the top level domain names for your business, like . Com, . Net, . Org et cetera.
Keep navigation easy and consistent. Don’t play around with links. Links are the only way a visitor can move around on your website. If he clicks on a link and on the next page he can’t find the link bar again, or he gets confused as to where exactly in the site he finds himself, he will leave. You don’t have to be a web design guru to understand the logic of that.
Locate the best ideas for web site design by looking online. There are several options for web design that you will find. Head online now and discover more.


