The 5 Basic Requirements of Great Web Design

The main purpose of any website is to communicate with its visitors and how each visitor experience the web site will largely depend on the actual visitor, i.e. a teenager will be more attracted to a new funky website, than a more mature person, who is just looking for the actual information in the content.

However there are basics that must be adhered to in web design to make the web site pleasing to visit, easy to navigate and that will leave a lasting impression on the visitor. These are:

• Layout,
• Colour,
• Texture,
• Typography and
• Imagery

Using a balanced combination of these 5 elements, will allow a visitor to:

• Enjoy a pleasing design, but that will allow for easy access to the actual content
• Move around the website easily with intuitive navigation
• Recognize that each page belongs to the web site

When it comes to layout, the main aim must always be to use the golden ratio or as it would be used in web design is the rule of thirds. The page is divided into thirds and navigation, content and imagery is then placed in these different sections to allow for a more pleasing layout.

Colour plays a very important role in web design. Colour associations are one of the most important aspects to take into consideration for example red is always associated with love and thus no one will design a Valentine's web site in green or blue. Similarly green is associated with nature and blue symbolizes openness, intelligence and faith. Blue is not part of Nature's appetizing colours and is therefore not a great choice to design restaurant or food web sites. Rather use a combination of red, orange and yellow.

Texture is anything that gives a specific feel being it in the background or in imagery or even in the fonts used in the text. A rough texture may be more suitable for web sites that is used for outdoor activities or safari travel websites, where as smooth, silky texture would be great for weddings, ladies clothes or baby web sites.

The core purpose of all web design is communication and therefore typography plays a very important role in this. Many web designers do not think about typography as an important part, however if you look at magazines and the numerous different font styles and sizes used, the importance of typography cannot be stressed enough. There are numerous obstacles in using typography on web sites, one which is that a visitor may not have the specific font loaded on his computer and will therefore not see the exact font. This can however be overcome by placing such "exotic" fonts in images.

When it comes to imagery the points to keep in mind is to ensure that they are relevant to the content, they must be interesting and they are appealing to the visitor. Relevant images can add interest to any web layout and also enhance the content of the site, but these should also be interesting and appealing so that it emphasis the content and ensures that the visitor is hooked to the content.

In summary, if the basics of web design, layout, colour, texture, typography and imagery are used in a balanced relationship with each other you should have a web site that will be aesthetically appealing and functional to your visitors ensuring more visitors to your web site.

Petrus Keyter

http://www.pankey.co.za

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Professional Means to Obtain a Good Design For Your Website

The best way to start an online business is to get prospects to your website. There are many out there who are overwhelmed by the opportunity to create their own website. Many believe that creating a website is extremely difficult. But it is not true. If you have a website, or you're thinking of having a website for which you want to optimize the taste of its viewers, so trust me, this is the need to design your site to the article because I am about to tell you all the advice you need to plan in great style. While there are forms, web design, which are very complex (and the software can be very expensive), the HTML is understandable and useful!

Before you begin your journey of design, you're going to have to...

1. A fast PC (or MAC), but preferably a PC with a screen capable of high resolution (1900 x 1200 preferred)
2. A fast internet connection that is always
3. A reliable hosting. A domain name and e-mail your own
5. You also need the software, but much of what you need to develop your own website is free or very cheap. The only software I use right now is Photoshop really expensive, but cheap (and free) alternative to that too.

When all of these resolved the next thing you should really interested in is making your site search engine friendly. In this deal the biggest role of regions for the entire site properly indexed by search engines. All we are going through,...

1. Title Tag
2. Meta (Description and Keywords) Tags
3. Body text: a brief description of what you should write in the body text of your main (index) page.

This is a very brief description, but it would be very useful for web designers starting to get a better understanding of the basics on how to get your site indexed and listed on the major search engines. It is recommended to submit your site to search engines manually instead of using the automatic submission tool because some search engines consider them as spam and will not list your site. Remember it can take months to get the list, so be patient.

Have you ever had a website where it says "content is king",if you were at that type of sites then believe then. Are you still reading, then I must have something to offer I think, or else you would sail away from this page long ago.

So be clear and get your works done without any troubles and make sure you are on the right track. If you need to know more about designing a site then log on to http://itbaymarketing.com and start your site getting some good info's from the professionals.