Essential Tips for Effective Web Design

 

Here are some essential web design tips that every website should follow. Design your website by following the list below and I guarantee that all visitors will have a terrific first impression of your website.

  • Fast Loading website designs:
    The Number 1 rule that every web designer should follow is to create a fast loading web site. You might have a great design but very few people are going to see it if it takes a long time to load. While designing a web site always think about how long it will take to load. Try out our tips to build a great looking web site that also loads fast.

  • Clear Navigation :
    Once a visitor has come to your website you need to make want to go through it. To do this you need to have clear navigation. If your main navigation is unclear, there is a good chance that a reader will not be able to find other topics that they may be interested in. Use a clear and concise navigation, with no more than 7-10 categories. Once you go past 10, it gives the reader too many options to choose from and can get confusing.

  • Design For All Monitor Resolutions:
    Today, there are computers with all kinds of resolution. They range from 640 x 480 to 1920 x 1080 and can go even higher. Designing a website to fit all screen resolutions is a very important web design principle. Perhaps you’ve noticed that most websites are designed for only one resolution. They may look perfect in 800 x 600 resolution but if viewed in 1024 x 768 resolution, the pages look a little empty with a lot of wasted, empty space surrounding the main object on the page.

  • Browser Compatibility:
    Make sure your website is browser compatible. Your web site should look good in Firefox as well as in Internet Explorer. Don't stop designing your site as soon as you find that it looks great on IE. Usually Firefox gives some problems, especially when you try doing complicated HTML designs. But don't give up too quick, usually with patience these problems can easily be fixed.

  • Readability:
    Avoid dark backgrounds and fancy font styles, if you have a lot of stuff to read on your web pages it's better to stick to a white background with black print as that will be less tiring to read. Arial, Verdana and Times Roman are the most common fonts to use and the easiest to read. Oh and yes one other thing - not everyone has 20/20 vision, make your font size is big enough for most people to read comfortably.

  • Check for broken links:
    Always check for broken links within a website before uploading it to your web server. In Dreamweaver you can check for broken links by right clicking on any file in the Site Files Window and then clicking on Check links -> Entire Site. If you don't have this program then you need to upload your site and then check it using online tools like:
  • W3C validation:
    To make standard compliant website, I always validate my markup and CSS on w3C.
    http://validator.w3.org/ – Validating markup
    http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/ – Validating CSS