There are many tools that will go a long way in helping you create a website that is viewer-friendly, clear, and effective. While it’s advisable to hire a consultant or company that specializes in web development in Philadelphia, you can undertake the task yourself if you are so inclined. If you are creating your own website, there are some basic design rules that you should keep in mind when designing your website.
Identify your audience. Who is your target market? If you are selling a product to athletic men, your website is going to look different that one selling feminine products. Establish website objectives or design purposes. What is it you want your website to do?
Content:
- Streamline your website content. Focus and define it.
- Use simple language that can be understood by everyone globally. Otherwise, you can alienate large segments of the population.
- Include lots of white space. Don’t cram too much onto a page. White space makes a page more visually appealing and easier to read.
- Create an outline or concept map of your website’s information so that you may prioritize it.
Navigation:
Navigation should be simple, clear and logical. Layer your site maps in an organized fashion (think “outline”). The fewer clicks required to get to a specific page, the better.
Graphics:
Text and structure comes first in web development. After you’ve designed your basic structure, analyze the content to determine what would benefit from illustration, photos, or other graphics.
Principles:
- Choose your text color and background that offers high contrast, but is not too hard on the eyes.
- Choose colors from a browser safe palette (consisting of the 216 colors shared by both PC and Mac).
- Use consistent text formatting throughout your website.
- Avoid changing colors, italics (hard to read) and underlining words (which people will mistake for links), and overly large text.
- Don’t use textured backgrounds (difficult to read).
- Illustrate content by using symbiotic, simple, small, non-moving graphics.
- Avoid dancing cats or similar moving graphics that are distracting and add nothing to content.