Basic Design Tips for the Beginner
When first starting out to create a website, especially if you are a beginner, there are a lot of things to think of. For instance graphics, pictures, layout, fonts and so forth. How you do it, and in what order, usually depends on who you ask.
Content and structure
It is an advantage to start off by deciding the content of the website, i.e. what it should be about. If you are a professional the subject is more or less already given. What you next is to plan the structure of the site, making a kind of scheme. The easiest way to do that is probably by using a pen and paper.
Frames or NoFrames
There are advantages and disadvantages with both. The advantages of using frames are however few, and in these cases really only for the producer of the website. A definite disadvantage of using frames is that you cannot bookmark a specific page, something most users like to be able to do. Therefor it is better not to use frames. That way you can bookmark that specific page you are interested in. Another advantage with not using frames is that the visitor can enter your website on any page and still be able to immediately see where he or she is on the website. This is not always the case when you are using frames. So my tip is therefor to avoid frames.
Navigating
This is a very important part of designing a website. In order to make it as easy and understandable as possible for the visitor the navigation needs to very clear and most of all consistant. The visitor should not have to guess what ****on or link to click in order to get where he or she want.
The placing of the menu is important as well. There are two standards on where to place the menu. Either in a column to the left, or in a row at the top of the page. If your menu consists of graphical ****ons it is a good idea to put the same links in the form of text links at the bottom of the page. That way you can get around on your website even if you cannot see the graphics.
Colours
Very often you have something to work from, for instance a company logotype. Then you can simply use the same colours as are in the logotype. If you are creating a personal website perhaps a favorite colour will do well. There are not really any rules when choosing colours, it is more about using your common sense.
There are however some really good recommendations. One is about the colour of text in relation to background colour. To read black text on a dark coloured or heavy patterned
background is very difficult and should be avoided. White text on black background can be difficult as well. It could work for short pieces of text, but should be avoided for longer texts, as it can be straining on the eyes.
Fonts
If you want to confuse the visitor you should use as meny types of fonts as you can. However, the best to do is to use no more than one or two types of fonts, one for the headline and one for the body of the text.
So which fonts should you use? The best thing to do is to use fonts that most people have on their computers, like Verdana or Times. Of course there are other fonts that you can use.
It is really up to you. However, my tip is to use a font like Verdana for the text body, because it is easier to read off the screen. With headlines, however, you can feel free to use pretty much any font you like, but keep in mind that others might not have it.