“Do’s and Don’ts” of Web Design

Do you want to have a website for your company? If so, then you must have already thought of a look for your website. But before making that thought a reality, you must first know what your websites must and must not have. This can help you make your website more attracting and effective to its visitors.

First off, your website should have titles that make sense. On every web page, there is a title that you can read in the top title bar of your browser. You should have a title that is more general rather than specific. For example, if you want to give information on how to train dogs, and you have a dog named Lyka, you should have a title like How to train Dogs instead of something like How to train Lyka.

Don’t put any flash intros on your website. A research says that one of the most clicked buttons on websites at present is the ‘skip intro’ button. Flash intros can only slow down the download of your website and irritate visitors.

Don’t put links on web pages that are still under construction. Visitors will just get irritated if they clicked on the link and found nothing. Instead, just disable that link until the web page is ready for viewing.

Turn off the blue borders on linked graphics. Links usually are clickable by words but you can replace it with a image to make it look like a button. But the problem is that it will still have a blue border on it to make it look like a link. That blue border does not look good with the button, so turn off that blue border.

These are all the necessary stuff that you need to learn before letting a web designer design your website. Instruct them on what they should put and what they should not put on the website they are about to design.

 

I lost a few clients doing this, seriously I get people that want a certain thing and that is all they want and they will go to who ever will give it to them.

I don’t much webdesign anymore only templates people just kept wanting so much crap flash, chat rooms, forms and crap that will make the site look like junk and turn people away and they want it all for cheap.

So now I tell them to find a template and I’ll look at it and give them a quote.

I agree it is junk but a lot of customers just want what is in their head and that is all they want.

 

haha I know what you mean

 

So, true! Hope fully most good designers will already know this.
Unfortunately as others have said here the customers seem to think that they know what is best.
Do they listen ? usually not...
A lot of customers will tell you that same thing about graphics, they think they know what looks good.

 

The single bugbear I have with 99% of designers is this:

A sites design should reflect its content and modus operandii.


If only designers would realise this it would be great.

 

heh just incase someone doesn't know how to turn off border

in the image tag, use the attribute border="0"

 

As I'm a designer I make sure all the text is actual text so that when the site is optimised google will pick it up easier and that no links are blue because it looks rubbish and doesn't go with the theme of each site I design. As for flash, flash intros are a big mistake, especially for a company because no one wants to watch an intro, they just want to see what the company does.

 

Or better yet, use CSS: img { border: 0; }

My recommendation: DO understand your client's needs before you start working.

 

Graphic designers should be instructed on proper use of fonts on the web! Often, you'll see a designer assign some obscure fancy font that average computers simply don't have, and then I, the developer, am stuck explaining the client why it can't be done as it was designed. Same goes for customized checkboxes/selectboxes.

 

NICE NICE NICE post

 

So true! I always click it

 

Terrible generalisation, some sites work well with it.

 

Ya but if your counting on Search Engine Rankings you can forget it because they kill any good chance of your site indexing well.

 

thanks for all your comments.

I'm just starting to promote my girlfriend's website, she is a graphic designer.

If you want to know how I promote her design services, I have started some kind of a journal on another thread

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=937993

let me know what you think!

 

In my opinion, the only time a site should be allowed to have a Flash intro is:

1. It's used to send the user to a localized site (e.g., a world map so the user can select his country)
2. It's used to select a language.
3. It's used to demo the product (e.g., a video of a vacuum)

It should never be used as a "Welcome" page without any real content or function. Again, that's my opinion. Take it or leave it.

 

useful post for web design

 

thats pro, explain pls