Web Design Tips

In a rush to stuff a web page with informative content and an attractive design, we almost forget that we ended up having a page which is difficult for users to scan. The prime focus of a web design is to create a site with maximum usability and readability. Until and unless you meet these criteria your page will be called noisy for users, which is unlikely to be visited by anyone. But the question is when your efforts are to make a website useful for users, how come they turn noisy? Well, that happens when you don’t actually pay attention to few basic elements, like…

• Not breaking up the content body with headings and sub-headings. Often web designers place content in the page without headings or subheadings because of which users can’t distinguish between important and unimportant stuffs.
  
  
• Not using background color bars to break up web page areas. Studies shows that color bars used for page separation create a neat look and helps users identify their interested part of the page and ignore the rest.
  
  
• Not paying attention to unnecessary content and graphics. It is always advised to keep content short and informative. It will create a bad impression if your visitors find some part of content useless. Similarly, remove unnecessary graphics.
  
  
• Not sticking to same font type, size and color. Designers who think that using different types of font will add versatility to their layout, they can be proved wrong. Users are in habit of viewing same font throughout the site. In fact, they are comfortable with single font type as it creates a sense that they are viewing the same site.

Web Designers

Web Development

Emailing has been long considered as an effective means of communicating with existing customers as well as prospective customers. Many websites send emails as an online marketing tool to let people know about their services and offers they have at present. But does such advertising really work? Probably, but not always! There could be various reasons behind this.

• Email doesn’t always reach to its destination due to number of corporate fire walls and webmail system built to filter consolidated bulk emails called spam mails.
• Creative activities done in the mail often are not visible in all email reading system. People keep on wondering about the mail but can’t figure out what is it.
• Recipients of emails are responsive immediately after they subscribe to a website. Gradually they lose interest and stop responding.
• Every recipient has different preferences for offer made to them. First, their preferences have to be identified to send them relevant mail.
• With the increasing rate of spamming it is really difficult to distinguish between spam email and legitimate emails by the filters which sometime bounce back the advertisement.
• To offer them more relevant advertisement, regular communication is required which is not possible on regular basis.

Most people think that email marketing costs nothing, but as a matter of starting such marketing even from a scratch cost a good sum of money to the company. Hence, before this technique of advertisement is taken up, it is important that a thorough research is done so that maximum success can be assured.

As anyone familiar with the industry will know, minimalism has been a rising trend for websites over the past few months, but it is important to remember that there is a fine line between something being minimalist and something being plain empty. So, in short, it is possible for a web design to be too minimalist – and here’s how:

• Designers forget that it’s just a style. It is important for everyone involved to remember that minimalism is just a style, like grunge or retro – not every design needs it and not every website will look good when done in this style. 
• Everyone thinks that minimalism works for all websites. This is actually a misconception – it tends to work best on ‘artsy’ websites, such as portfolios for creative industries – not so much for a heavy-duty equipment supplier. 
• A minimalist design means little to no content. When people look at non-minimalist websites, they often say that they are cluttered or ugly, but this does not mean that a minimalist style calls for as little content as possible – you still need to aim for content-rich. 
• Designers become lazy and begin to misuse the style. Whilst it may not seem like there is a lot to a minimalist web design, it actually takes a lot of practice to master. Are you an advocate for minimalism because you love it or because you cannot be bothered to do it another way?

The next time you are working on a minimalist web design for yourself or a client, take a step back and take a look at the bigger picture to avoid being too minimalist – remind yourself that it is just a style, that it won’t work for all websites, and that you still need adequate content.

Because the home page or the header are often the first things that a visitor sees when entering a website, they often take up the bulk of a web designer’s attention during the project. But what happens when visitors reach the end of the page? Instead of losing their interest with a copyright statement, you need to include a useful footer that will lead visitors to other areas of the website.
So, how do you craft a useful footer and turn it into a good website host? Use the following tips to enhance the presentation of your footer:

• Make it big: don’t go for the token footer that is thin and barely tall enough to allow one line of text – go for web design that is big and attention grabbing. The general rule of thumb is to make the height of your footer at least a quarter of it’s width.
• Set it apart: don’t allow your footer to blend into the content at the bottom of your page – effective web design should include a distinct boundary between the page and the footer, such as a bold line (at the bare minimum).
• Make it stylish: don’t design your footer so that is blends into the background – utilize your web design skills to create a footer that incorporates a grand colour scheme and typography, making sure that you use visual elements already used in the website.
• Make it worthwhile: don’t leave the web design of your footer until the last minute – it should be strong enough to grab any visitor’s attention and, therefore, should be just as important (and have just as much time spent on it) as any other important page.