New web designers need to know web page design basics in order to create handsome, functional websites. Fortunately, there are hundreds of valuable resources–this article included–that can contribute to your knowledge of basic design principles. Read on for some basic website creation tips to help you improve your skills.
Draw a favorites icon for your website. This tiny little graphic will make your site much more recognizable should your visitor bookmark your site. As they look through their bookmark list, your favicon will stand out more than the bookmarks of other sites. Brand your icon to match your logo and website.
Every page you create needs to have its code validated. Easy-to-use WYSIWYG web editing programs tend to burden your pages with junk code that is extraneous or even harmful. If you use a WYSIWYG editor, go the extra mile and validate your site code through a service. There is a free service available to do this through W3C.
Even if you pay a lot for your website design, you should leave the hosting to professional web hosts. Design as much of the site as you are comfortable with, then allow someone with more experience to handle the rest. This maintains the overall quality of your site, but also gives you the opportunity to focus your attention elsewhere.
Video is an increasingly important element to any website, so make sure that your hosting service can accommodate it. A lot of hosts out there will not allow video hosting on their servers. They do this because FLV files can take up quite a bit of space on a public server. Just make sure you check before doing this so that you do not waste a lot of time and effort.
Build a feedback-gathering mechanism into a website to gather visitors’ opinions. This will give you a mechanism where your visitors can let you know if something is broken, doesn’t work as well as it should or is confusing. Involving your visitors in your website can help to bond them to your brand and bring them back time and time again.
It is wise to develop a sitemap you can reference for planning purposes. With a visual sitemap, you will see exactly how your structure is developing. The sitemap lets you quickly identify any problems or weaknesses that need to be improved upon or repaired. Nothing compares to having a clear visual overview of your project.
Imitation might be the best form of flattery, but when it comes to website design it’s important to develop your own ideas. Come up with your own features and designs, and improve upon things you see all across the web. Using this technique will give you the ability to make amazing websites.
Let someone test the functionality of your site along the way. Each time you change your website or add something, have a friend visit your site and try it out. It might not matter to you if a product demonstration takes 10 seconds to load, but your visitors might think differently. It is important to always get the advice of others.
Website Development
It’s now a given that new web designers need to learn website development basics to be able to build handsome, properly functioning websites. With so much quality data on this subject available, you may have a hard time knowing where to begin. This article has provided you with the basics that you need to understand website development.