Critical Basics of Web Designing

[jyotitis]

Web design is made up of some basic premises, and if you understand them you can design pages that will impress and illuminate your readers.

Basic Tips of Web Designing

The following tips can help you to create great web designs that work with your readers.

•   Use small images like 10-15 kb per image, yes it depends on the source, but slow pages are really annoying and huge images are a primary cause of slow pages. It’s easy to optimize your images.
•   Always use graphics that fit the content. Just because you have an adorable photo of your dog doesn’t means you should have it on your website about web design.
•   Stick with standard layouts. The 3-column layout is so popular on websites and newspapers because it works. You might think it’s boring, but you will keep more readers if you stick with something simple that they can understand.
•   White space should be more than the CSS property; it is a function of your layout. You should be aware of the white space on your pages and how it affects the content viewed. White space is important in a web layout as it is a paper layout.

Fonts

•   Serif for headlines and sans-serif for text. Sans-serif fonts are much easier to read on computer monitors because the screen resolution is not as high as it print. If you use serif fonts for normal text, the serif can blur together on screen making it hard to read
•   Limit the number of different fonts. 2 or possibly 3 standard font families are easier to read and look more professional.
•   Use standard font families, for example: You can choose “Rockwood LT standard” as this font on your page, but the chances that one of your readers will have that font as well is pretty low. Sticking with font like Verdana, Geneva, Arial, and Helvetica may seem boring, but your pages will look better and the designs will look correct on more browsers.

Remember Your Readers

•   Test your pages in multiple browsers.
•   Write the content as they want. Unless you are writing a site purely for yourself, make sure that your content should covers topics that your readers want to read.

This is one of my articles at my Web Design Blog. Share if you know some more tips.

[Andy]

I think you are not following your own advice since you don't have a 3-column design that is boring like a newspaper, but you have a web 2.0 2-column design.

Also, you are not using a Serif font for your headlines like you are recommending.