advice every web designer should know

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Advice Every Web Designer Should Know A subject like website design scares a lot of people from time to time. This is because they're unfamiliar with the subject, but just like anything else the more you learn about website development the more confident you become. HTML5 video is set to become the next standard for displaying videos on the web and naturally, you should offer both a way in which users can stream your content through an HTML5 format as well as another format such as flash for those who have an older browser version. Avoid trying to add every new gadget to your website. It can be tempting to make your site look cutting edge by including every new web page design web site option out there but it can end up turning people off. Simple will generally get the job done even better than a flashy layout. Avoid creating user interface (UI) controls that mislead your visitors. These controls include elements, widgets and more that create an interactive experience, such as a link, drop-down list or button. You do not want to make visitors think that clicking on an underlined word or phrase for example, will lead to a new page if it is not actually linked to something else. When your visitors have expectations of something working a certain way and it does not, they are more likely to assume there is something wrong with your site and leave. Use shortcuts often. Nearly all facets of web page design have shortcuts you can take, so the time you take to learn them once can save you time on everything over and over in the future. There are lots of HTML codes that can help you make changes quickly without going through the upload process. Keep your pages to a reasonable length. Add content through new pages on your site, instead of tacking it on to the end of a home page. For the most part, readers are hesitant to keep going on a page that seems to scroll on forever. If you must have a lot of content on one page, include hyperlinks at the top and in sections throughout the page. This allows users to navigate through the available content without excessive scrolling. To help you design a more professional looking site, do not include an image in the page background. A background image screams low quality site, plus these site usually take forever to load. When you are going for a more professional look, the last thing you want is your visitors waiting forever because images are still loading on your pages.

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Page 1: Advice Every Web Designer Should Know

Advice Every Web Designer Should Know

A subject like website design scares a lot of people from time to time. This is because they'reunfamiliar with the subject, but just like anything else the more you learn about websitedevelopment the more confident you become.

HTML5 video is set to become the next standard for displaying videos on the web and naturally, youshould offer both a way in which users can stream your content through an HTML5 format as well asanother format such as flash for those who have an older browser version.

Avoid trying to add every new gadget to your website. It can be tempting to make your site lookcutting edge by including every new web page design web site option out there but it can end upturning people off. Simple will generally get the job done even better than a flashy layout.

Avoid creating user interface (UI) controls that mislead your visitors. These controls includeelements, widgets and more that create an interactive experience, such as a link, drop-down list orbutton. You do not want to make visitors think that clicking on an underlined word or phrase forexample, will lead to a new page if it is not actually linked to something else. When your visitorshave expectations of something working a certain way and it does not, they are more likely toassume there is something wrong with your site and leave.

Use shortcuts often. Nearly all facets of web page design have shortcuts you can take, so the timeyou take to learn them once can save you time on everything over and over in the future. There arelots of HTML codes that can help you make changes quickly without going through the uploadprocess.

Keep your pages to a reasonable length. Add content through new pages on your site, instead oftacking it on to the end of a home page. For the most part, readers are hesitant to keep going on apage that seems to scroll on forever. If you must have a lot of content on one page, includehyperlinks at the top and in sections throughout the page. This allows users to navigate through theavailable content without excessive scrolling.

To help you design a more professional looking site, do not include an image in the pagebackground. A background image screams low quality site, plus these site usually take forever toload. When you are going for a more professional look, the last thing you want is your visitorswaiting forever because images are still loading on your pages.

Page 2: Advice Every Web Designer Should Know

To help your website function the way it isintended to, make sure all your links areworking. If you have broken links then yourvisitors may get frustrated when they try toclick on something that interests them.Frustrated visitors is not something youwant because they end up leaving your sitemad.

Put compelling, interesting information onyour website. Website design is critical, butwithout content, it won't matter. Whenyour content provides useful and valuableinformation that addresses the needs ofyour site visitors, those visitors are morelikely to come back to your site in thefuture.

For the best layout, make sure that the colors you choose for the background and font are restful tothe eyes. Choosing moving backgrounds or neon colors can make it hard for people to read, and theymay navigate to another web site. However, include pictures to break up your content and make thesite complete.

Practice as often as possible, as you begin to learn web page design. Start trying out ideas as youlearn them. This is important so that you can make sure you are able to apply the knowledge you aregaining. Simply reading an idea is not the same as practicing it.

Even if you know how to design sites for the web you still have much to learn. Everyone today isusing mobile devices so this means http://www.dallasprowebdesigners.com/ that there is a higherdemand for making sites mobile compatible. Start learning how to build mobile sites so that you'reknowledgable of how to build various types of websites.

A great website development tip is to ensure that your site is able to be found with or without thesubdomain. You should be able to find your site by typing www.mysitehere.com and alsohttp://mysitehere.com. Sites that work like this are also able to be found without a prefix at all. Youcan type mysitehere and find it.

Avoid adding too much content on your page that will make your site lag which can deter peoplefrom coming back to your site. You want people to have the feeling of wanting to come back to yoursite, not the other way around. So be sure to check your site from time to time to make sure whatyou add isn't lagging it up.

Make sure you place ALT image tags during your website design. These tags are very helpful forthose web surfers who view the web with images turned off, as well as to those web surfers who arevisually impaired. The ALT tags can be read out loud by text-to-speech software.

As an alternative to Photoshop, you could choose to use the GIMP photo editor. GIMP has practically

Page 3: Advice Every Web Designer Should Know

every single feature that Adobe Photoshop does; and instead of spending hundreds of dollars on aprogram and using up a few hundred MBs of program space, GIMP is 100% free and runs about35mb.

If video-hosting is something you'd like to include on your site, you'll first need to ensure that yourweb host accepts the idea. There are some hosts that forbid hosting videos. The FLV files used formodern video can either consume too much storage space or use too much bandwidth, so don'twaste your time and check beforehand.

When it comes to web page design you don't want to be left in the dust, you want to be up to date sothat you know how to program your site as well as what people want. So even though youunderstand how to build a website make sure that you always fill your brain with new knowledge.

You've read the advice here and are ready to put it into action, so get ready to design your site! Startby sketching out a design and making lists of the content you'll need and you'll have your websiteonline in no time.

If you always apply yourself in a subject like website development then you should have no problemsucceeding, take this into consideration. Some of the information you learned might seem a bitconfusing now but keep in mind that as you come along with website creation you should start tofeel a little less confused and a bit more confident so always be on the lookout for new information toadd to your arsenal.