Tuesday, 29 January 2013

Enhance Your Site With These Web Design Tips

By Myrtis Meyerhoff


The following article contains a number of great tips for the beginning web designer.

Web designers that are trying to decide whether or not it is prudent to obtain an SSL certificate should understand that it depends on whether their website will be storing private information such as credit cards and personal details. If it is, you should probably purchase one, for safety reasons.

If you're going to choose a software program to aid in the design of your website, you can save some serious cash by choosing a free, open source program. Open source programs are great not only because they're free for public use, but also because they're constantly updated and improved by users with a lot of web know-how.

Make sure your text and background has the proper contrast. There's evidence showing that white text on a black background is easiest for most people to read, but other colors are fine so long as they're readable. Also keep in mind that people with visual impairments may not be able to read your site if the contrast is poor. Check to see if your site complies with various contrast standards using the tool. You can find out more on Zlingca.

Test your site to see if the major translation services work properly when translating your site. Some sites receive many international visitors, and these visitors sometimes use services like BabelFish and Google Translate to translate the text to their language. Certain web design problems, especially poor server side code, can break these services.

One thing that all web designers should understand is that popular tools such as Microsoft and Adobe are not necessary to create great web sites. If you want to create a great website without spending a lot of money there are plenty of free, open source software out there that will do the job just as well.

If you own a commercial business, it is not in your best interest to use some of the free hosting services. While they may not cost anything to have your website on them, many times there are proprietary issues where you will not own the content or there are intrusive advertisements from the hosting company plastered on your website.

Just take things one at a time. If you are not feeling confident in any area at all when you're designing a website then go ahead and ask for help from someone. You can either find help from a friend or from strangers on places like forums on the web. Just be sure you don't tackle anything without knowing what you're doing first. ZlingDesign can help you about this issue.

Be sure your website works both with and without the "www" prefix. Some people will type this in before they head to your site as a force of habit, and some may not. You should make sure that customers will be directed to your site either way, or you may have some confused people on your hands.

Optimize load times on your website. If visitors must wait a long time for something to load, they will want to leave the site. Try reducing your number of graphics, Flash, and script on your pages, optimizing your HTML, using SSI files, using client and server caching, creating expire headings, and minimizing your JS and CSS coding.

Consider using some sort of time tracking software to help keep you focused and on task. Getting distracted is an easy way to prolong the completion of any project your are working on and these time management products will help keep your head in the game, allowing you to achieve your goals on time.

As you read in the beginning of this article, all you really need to build a website is a little bit of information. If you know a few simple tricks then there is no reason why you cannot build a nice looking site in no time.

Take the tips from this article to help you get started designing your very first site.




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