3

Click here to load reader

Site Production For Dummies: Quick Tips And Tricks

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: Site Production For Dummies: Quick Tips And Tricks

Site Production For Dummies: Quick Tips And Tricks

Do you aspire to become a great web designer? Is your lack of knowledge about website designpreventing you from attaining personal goals? Read this article to get a better idea of what webdesign is about and find out where to start your education.

Functional websites work out for all visitors,regardless of their browser, so it's essentialthat your website is tested across all the majorplatforms. Something that functions fine inFirefox, might not even appear on the screenof a computer using Internet Explorer orChrome. Test every page in each browserbefore you let your site go live.

Avoid useless scripts. Scripts like countersand date/time scripts don't really serve anypurpose, and since they are all JavaScript, canadd a few kilobytes to the page's file size.Getting rid of these elements also frees upspace on the homepage. Replace those uselessscripts with useful content that keeps userscoming back.

Don't try to fit too much onto one page when you're designing a website. If your page is too busy itwill take a lot longer to load and can overwhelm visitors. When you're going to be putting up a lot ofcontent, create pages for everything you can to reduce the clutter on your page.

If you want more visitors to your site, you need to design it in a way that makes it easy to updatecontent. If your site can be easily updated it helps you to be able to quickly add new and relevantinformation. A site that is constantly updated will keep your visitors coming back for more.

To help keep your site visitors happy, do not underline words. Underline words on the internetsignifies that the word is a clickable link. If you have too many words on your pages that areunderlined with being clickable links, then your visitors will be frustrated after continuously tryingto click on them.

Selecting the right server to upload your files, it is important for site design. You want a file serverthat is reliable, secure and fast. The pros go with FileZilla because it fits the bill in terms of speedand reliability. You can choose this or something similar; what's important is that you have a reliablefile server.

Every website designer needs a good platform to test their work out on, and XAMPP is probably thebest out there. XAMPP will allow you to run your test sites with PHP and mySQL, so you will alwaysbe able to spot anything that needs to be changed. XAMPP is a relatively light download and it's alsoeasy to figure out.

Page 2: Site Production For Dummies: Quick Tips And Tricks

Selecting a good domain name is a very important aspect of website design. When you type anaddress in the web browser, do you use the famous www sub domain? Most people like to just typethe address without using this, meaning you must design your site to be able to accept both.

To help make sure your website works as you are designing it, test it one of the browsers likeInternet Explorer. When you test the website as you go along building it, you can quickly correct anyproblems that might show up http://systemise.com.au/ once you live. When your website goes liveyou want your visitors to be able to see everything working correctly.

It is wise to buy some books that will help you learn how to website design successfully. Whenpurchasing instructional books, make an effort to pick those that start from your level of expertise.

Make use of your grammar and spell checker. Yes, some mistakes may get passed some of youraudience, but it will not get past everyone. You could lose some of your audience because of this,particularly if you make mistakes frequently. Do your best to correct your grammar and spelling onyour site.

Be very critical of the fonts you choose. Professional websites use professional fonts. Avoid usingfonts like Comic Sans and various fancy fonts that might not be on many computers. If a persondoesn't have a font on their computer, the browser might render the site using the default font(generally Times New Roman). Doing this can make it look even worse.

Prepare a few concept sketches to show the way you hope your site will appear. Your friends andfamily can comment on your sketches, give you advice on what to add or take away and help you toalter your plans.

A website's design is never done. Be prepared to engage with your website on an ongoing basis. Itwill not be necessary to update every day, but do realize that fresh content must be a priority. This isa must especially if you host videos or work with current events. Remember, website updating ismuch different than blog updating. There is a lot of work involved.

Focusing on your target audience is important even for website design. For instance, if you'redesigning a site in order to sell winter coats, you're not exactly going to have a beach themedbackground with Joe Strummer tunes playing upon entry. Keep your site closely related to itstargeted audience.

Your whole website needs to be consistent, focusing on being user-friendly. Color change forpreviously clicked links and making text that is underlined clickable are two user friendlyconventions to use. This will help people easily navigate through your website.

Always Company Website Design Sample ask for others to review your newly designed site beforegoing live. Keep in mind that just because you find something attractive, someone else may not.When possible, have people from your target audience test the site and offer feedback as to theirlikes and dislikes.

When designing a website, make sure a direct link is included to your blog. You need to have a blogthat shows you're an expert on the things you do when it comes to your business. Make it easy tofind and easy to read to be sure that your visitors get the most out of the time spent reading yoursite and your blog.

Page 3: Site Production For Dummies: Quick Tips And Tricks

To summarize, it is critical that you give yourself a good base of web page design knowledge beforetrying to start your own site. Hopefully you were able to find these tips well written and relevant.Implement these tips and you will find that you will love new experience that you are going to havewith web design.