I have lots of question and I'm not asking anyone to answer everything for me. But the thing is I am new to this and I'm stuck. I'm looking for advices from more experienced web designers that can put me on the right path. I have searched but they either didn't answer my questions well enough or I feel like I need to confirm/clarify some points. Questions: 1 - My site is pretty small. About, FAQ, Contact, Policy/Terms, Advertise are pretty much standard but what should go where? I'm very confused because I see some sites put those in footer, some near the header, some both, some include everything in a single page. I've seen sites where they put a few pages above the logo, and the rest in a navigation bar below, then there are other who just puts everything in the bar. How do I know which apporach suits my site, are there guidelines? 2 - Most sites gave advices that you shouldn't open new browser windows. However 9gag does it by opening a new tab every time you choose to view an individual post. It's a pretty popular site so what are the pros of doing so since most sites advice against this practise? 3 - I got this plugin installed on my page that makes it possible to navigate through the site by pressing different Keys. However, how can I make visitors aware of this? Keeping it in a "How-to-use-my-site" page feels like waste. It's like a page for 4 lines, "Press Key1 for next post, Press Key2 for..". I was thinking of putting a cookie, display a popup, lightbox, tooltip for first time visitors. However I hesitated because people don't like cookies and people who clears their cookies would get annoyed every time they visit. Any experienced browser that know sites with genious "How-to-use-our-site" approaches? 4 - I have a fixed navigation bar, I think it's nice because it's easier to access when you scroll. Please tell me if this is the case: you should only put things there that user would likely click after they scrolled your page. Putting pages like About and Submit in your fixed navigation bar are wrong? 5. Looking at Hongkiat and 9gag their fixed navigation bar is pretty small on content. There are like links, a search bar, some "Follow" links and overall the contents are like 400px wide. So why are they using a 100% width navigation bar? In terms of space a smaller one would suffice and they would avoid covering the content. Is it because it would look ugly with a fixed, top navigation bar that only covers part of the screen? I can't see the problem. 6. Is there a reason why tumblr and facebook are using lower cased letters? I've read somewhere that it's a marketing strategy because people tend to spell sites with lower case letters. But surely sites like Google, Youtube, Amazon must have thought of that? 7. My last question, where do I place my logo? Facebook and reddit puts their beside their navigation bar which saves more space but makes their brand less noticeable. Hongkiat, Huffingtonpost and this site places their logo above the bar making it more noticeable, but pushes down the content and leaves a big empty space beside which they cover with ads. Are all these different approaches just a matter of taste or is there a reason behind the design? I am sorry for all these questions. I tried to search but if anyone could direct me to a site which I might have missed that might answer any of these questions I'd be happy. Thanks!
This is all a matter of opinion so I'll give you my opinion on the first question. The About, FAQ and Contact page should be in your main navigation. The Policy/Terms page should be in the footer, open in a new tab and be very printer-friendly (no visual elements, navigation, etc.) The Advertise page link should also be in the footer but not open in a new tab.
As ekim941 says, much is purely personal prejudice, though he didn't say it in nearly as poetic a way. ;-) That's a tough call, and one that causes development meetings to become loud as each stake holder wants his page(s) prominent in the menu. Since it's your site, put yourself in visitor shoes and ask which format makes it easier for him to do what he came to the site to do. There are two things every surfer knows how to use. One of them is the back button. Opening new tabs or windows breaks the back button and likely annoys the hell out of the visitor. IFF the visitor wants it in another tab or window, let him initiate it. All web surfers spend a lot more time on other sites than on yours. Don't bust their chops by making your site work differently. There are established practices for navigational shortcuts within the page. If you stay standard, those that need or want these shortcuts can use them. The other thing that all browsers users know how to use is the scroll bar. That makes damn near all examples of fixed position elements more annoying than anything. Worse, that take up space that is often at a premium. Consider, too, that since a fixed element can't be scrolled, any overflow of the viewport is lost and unusable. I am especially aware of that issue when using my laptop which has only 690px available vertically, less the browser default chrome and my various toolbars. No comment except on the silliness of the layout and waste of the whole right side. Branding. That's it, no other reason. If it's a major part of your identity, make it prominent. If it's not, it doesn't matter a whole lot. In that case, you'll have other elements that establish your branding. cheers, gary