Web Design - Do It Yourself
A Web Hosting Article Contributed by Raj Rao
What is Web Design ?
Web Design is the process of integrating graphics, photographs, programming code, animation, audio and video to create a web page that can be viewed on the Internet Browser by visitors to your website.
Web Design requires multi-disciplinary skills including artistic ability to create computer graphics, page layout, minimal programming and a good aesthetic sense, besides knowledge of doing business on the Internet.
Web Design is essential for developing any website. The design of the web page can vary from being text based to a highly interactive graphics intensive web page. The choice depends entirely on the purpose of the website.
Considering the importance of the Web Design, your full involvement in the designing stage is essential. So, the obvious question is can you do it yourself?
Web Design - Can You Do It Yourself?
Web Design is part art and part programming. If you have at least one of the two skills, you could attempt web design yourself.
If you have good artistic ability, there are several tools available for web design that you can use to create a web pages with only a basic knowledge of programming. However, if you have good programming skills, you can still use ready-to-use templates available to design a good website.
However, it is necessary for you to have a good exposure to the Internet and especially the Internet Browser technology. This will enable to you to create a web design that is robust and works well.
Web Design also requires you to have a working knowledge of how visitors respond to colors, navigation aids, text sizes etc.
In short, it is indeed possible for you to do Web Site Design yourself, with some effort, if you have at least one of the two skills.
Web Design Tips for Doing It Yourself
Always start with a design concept on paper. This enables you to remain focussed on the design rather than get lost in the features available in the Web Design Tools that you use.
It is a good idea to browse the websites of your competitors or websites that have a similar purpose. See how you respond to them. Learn from their mistakes.
Review the Web Design tools available in the market and use the one that you are most comfortable with. Start with a tool that is not too complicated and has all the necessary features to complete the web design. A basic how-to book in web design may also be helpful in creating your website, as it not only teaches the basic terminologies but also gives quick tips to accomplish a certain task. Hence investing in a handbook may be worthwhile, and easy on the pocket.
Practising web design using an existing website template or a web page saved from the Internet may also be useful. This will give you a good idea of how the design elements are structured and help you to use the various tricks. However do not attempt to copy the template as it you may be infringing the copyright laws pertaining to that web page.
Have a mental picture of a typical visitor to your website. Imagine how he or she would respond to your design - navigation, text display, graphics, photographs etc and make changes accordingly.
There is no such thing as a good design. There are many websites which may appear jarring to the eyes but still accomplish their aim, that is attracting traffic. So do your research and design a web page which suits your business needs.
