A rookie designer, who does not have any practical experience of designing websites, will have many jumbled up thoughts in his mind. For example, he/she wouldn’t know what aspects to tackle first (and in which order) at the time of designing the website. In this scenario, it is advisable that he/she gets to know the basics related to web design and addresses them one by one. Let us take a look at some of the basic concerns related to website design, which the newbie designers must address.
Seamless Navigation
First and foremost, the designer must make the navigation seamless for the end-users so that they can browse the entire site without any hassle. For this, designers can choose from different kinds of layouts available or make some of their own, these should be simple, yet meet the objective of the website. This layout must be kept the same throughout all the web pages of the site to give it a uniform look and feel and so, the visitors will find it easy to navigate the pages.
Placement of Call to Action buttons
The ultimate goal of any website is to make the visitors take a call-to-action such as clicking a button for a newsletter subscription or for a download. This is the reason, why the call-to-action buttons must be placed in appropriate positions on the site, which can draw the attention of the visitors easily. A wise decision in this direction will be to make use of sidebars and place the buttons in them using different font type and size than that of the main content.
Color Choice
There is no rule of thumb to choose colors for the websites but there are some general considerations common to all sites which the designers must note. For instance, the designer must never use too bright colors as it can make the visitors squint and they will feel ill at ease. Also, he/she must take care of the contrast – if the site has a dark background, then the fonts used must be light and vice versa.
Another point they must keep in mind is that different color schemes appeal to different sets of people and influence them to take a decision in the favor of the site. This is the reason why sites meant for women have feminine shades like – pink, red, peach, magenta etc. As these colors appeal to them instantly and not dull shades like gray or brown.
Number of Images and Graphics
A newbie designer must never ever take the help of images and graphics to camouflage his or her flaws or use them simply because “it will make the site appeal to the users”. Images and graphics are good to an extent as they provide relief from continuous text (readability of the site) but then, using excess of them makes the page heavy and leaves a bad impression on the visitors if they do not find any relevant information on the site.
Typeface issues
Rookie designers usually love to experiment, which is not a bad trait. But at times it can be detrimental to their website’s success. This may happen when the designer designs the typeface(s) for the website. Many a times, they go for bizarre fonts and style, which might not suit the kind of site, which they are working on.
If they are unclear regarding the typeface, then it is advisable that they check out different kinds of websites and the fonts used in them. For example, Comic Sans is a complete no-no when it comes to corporate sites, and they must stick to Times New Roman or Arial. On the contrast, when it comes to sites for women they can use various handwriting fonts.
When newbie designers apply the above mentioned points while designing their sites, there is no way that the visitors would abandon the sites midway, making the site successful.