Website Graphics – What to Do and What Not to Do
You only have one shot at a first impression. The design of your website is the very first thing that a visitor will notice, and it will be the design that sends them on their way, or entices them to stay for a longer look around. To ensure that your own graphics don’t put off any people that stray onto your pages simply stick to the following lists of what to do and what not to do within your design.
What to do…
- Always remember that although you might have a super speedy broadband connection, the rest of the world might not. Ensure that any image and media files are small enough as to ensure that your website will load quickly, and that downloads will reach your visitors in a short space of time. Try out your website before releasing it to the general public to see if it takes any longer to appear fully on your screen than 30 seconds. If it does there is some optimisation to be done.
- Keep check on any graphics within your website that look as though they should be buttons or links but don’t have any functionality. It will frustrate your visitors when they try clicking but are unable to. Try to make things as easy as possible for your guests, by making it clear what they can and can’t click on to access additional information.
- Spend some time checking whether your website design looks good in a range of different internet browsers. Just because everything appears amazing in Internet Explorer does not mean that it will work well in Firefox. A quick test could save you trouble at a later date.
What not to do…
- Using a busy background may seem like a good idea at the time, but if the text on the foreground is impossible to read against it then you must make some changes. The content is the most important element of your website, so even if it means laying a section of white over your impressive background do so, to ensure that your text can be read.
- Setting your font to something that is not easy to read will cost you customers. It is an instantaneous way to put an individual off and to send them on their way to the site of your competitors that stuck to a more readable font. You should also watch out for colour; ensure that the colour of your font contrasts with the colour of the background to maximise the reading potential.
- Picking a range of different colours and using them all here, there and everywhere can produce an unprofessional looking website design. Instead, why not consider choosing one or two colours to match your theme and simply adjusting the contrast to create slight variations.
- Assuming that you like your website design so everyone else will is a potentially fatal error. Before launching your pages to your clientele, why not have family and friends that you can trust to be brutally honest give you some opinions? It may help to move your website form an amateur effort to a professional masterpiece.
Author Note: (The above article has been added to our Website Design Articles section as part of our efforts to help provide our website visitors and customers with an insight into the Logo Design and Website Design industry).
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