A Custom Web Site Design is a Thing of Beauty!
A Web Hosting Article Contributed by Frances Rhea
Creating a Beautiful Custom Web Site Design
When creating a custom Web site, a well-designed page is a thing of beauty. A skilled Web site designer can take differing elements like body text, headings, graphics, links, etc., and arrange them into a harmonious design.
Most people know nothing about fonts, leading, justification, or letter kerning, but will subconsciously sense when a Web page is well presented. A good custom Web site design should be practical as well as aesthetically pleasing. A page that is designed well is easy to read, and will lead the readers' eyes where you want them to go.
The practical aspects of organizing pages into a Web site, and providing good navigation tools, are an important aspect of custom Web design. Equally important though is the custom visual design of the Web site.
Good and Bad are in the Eye of the Beholder in Custom Web Site Design
Custom Web page layout is an art. There are, however, guidelines that are generally accepted for Web site design. These "standard" design principles do not necessarily need to always be followed. Take a look at "Wired" magazine as an example of how to break every standard design rule. Even the paper that it is printed on is a non-standard size for a magazine. The thing you want to remember is what effect are you trying to create.
Do you want your custom Web site design to create a solid and dependable appearance, or do you want to look wild and crazy? The difference is how many of the standard guidelines you break.
Custom Web Site Design is Different Than Printed Design
A Web page is not a printed page (although some people do want to print the information they find). While a lot of the rules that apply to printed pages also apply to Web pages, there are some main important differences.
The main difference is that a Web designer can never be sure how the visitor is going to see the page. The is because the page will look different on different systems. In an attempt to make sure they have control over every element,some misguided designers lay out the whole page using graphics. They do not realize that designing in this manner is no guarantee that their viewer will see exactly what they want them to. Some browsers will not display their colors correctly.
Some people turn off their images when they are browsing to speed up the process. Other visitors will have a different monitor resolution and not see the whole image, or worse yet, have to scroll to see the right hand side of the page.
Conclusion
As you can see there is more that goes into creating a custom Web site design than meets the eye...or maybe I should say it is exactly what meets the eye! If you are contracting a Web designer, make sure you see some of their past work. Compare it to what you want and you should have a good match.
