Web Design - Designing Your First Website

A Web Hosting Article Contributed by Jamie Wilson

Web Design - Designing Your First Website

Designing a website isn't as intimidating as it sounds; in fact, it's not much harder than typing a document on a word processor. The first thing you have to do is decide what your web design will be.

Choosing a Web Design

There are three different basic ways you can plan your first website. First, you can put up what is effectively an electronic business card: your name, contact information, and information about the business or hobby your website is intended to support. In this sort of design, you don't need to understand anything about links because it is a one-page design (that can, of course, be added to later).

The second type of website is a true web -- it starts with a central page and extends in all directions from links on that central page. With this sort of web design, you want the same information as is on the electronic business card type, along with a top and bottom menu leading to the other pages on the site and other methods for navigating to them, if you wish.

The third type is a complex website, incorporating the structure of the second type along with other types of content such as sound and video, flash animation, or special services like bulletin boards, chat rooms, and games. Web design incorporating this complexity is generally done by a professional.

Good Taste in Web Design

With all the bells and whistles available to put together websites today, web designers often forget the primary purpose of a website: to communicate information. The most important thing to consider for your website is that your visitors need to be able to read and comprehend the information you are placing there for them. For instance, black text on a white background is relatively easy to read. Black text on a background of tiled images looks sort of neat, but it's nowhere near as easy to read.

Don't clutter your web with excess images or gadgets. Keep it simple and straightforward. Unless you have a page you are using as a gallery, try not to have more than two or three images on a page. Design each page around a theme, such as the fresh produce your store sells (with bananas as bullets and some attractive pictures of your shelves) or the special care your auto shop takes with detailing (little flame bullets and pictures of pristine cars).

And keep the language simple. Jargon is the kiss of death. Short to-the-point text written specifically to communicate information is ideal. Use lots of bullets rather than long paragraphs. And break your text up often with headers.

Testing Your Web Design

When your website is complete, proofread it once forward and once backward -- reading each sentence from back to front. Ask someone else to look at it for you, navigating while you watch (don't speak, just observe them). Anything that causes them to hesitate or lose interest is something you want to change. Most importantly, test every link you have on your page, and test them every single month. Even internal links can break unexpectedly, and external links are often very unreliable.

With good web design, you can turn your website into an effective marketing tool for your business or organization.