Designing a User Friendly Site

What good is a website if your users don’t understand how to use it? No good. Creating a user friendly website is very important to your success in the online world. If you want your online website or business to be successful, it is important to develop a site that is easy-to-use and is compatible on all sorts of web browsers.

When designing your website it is important to keep it user-friendly. Following these few steps will keep visitors coming back for more.

• Avoid pages that contain splash. Splash pages are pointless. They are just an introduction with a “click here to enter” sign or banner. Splash pages create extra clicking and loading time for visitors. Without a splash page, your visitors can visit your site without the added wait time.
• Make your navigation easy-to-use. Keeping your navigation simple will prevent user frustration. If you have a large website, people may find it difficult to navigate. If frustration sets in, people may just leave your website and find a site that they can actually find their way around. To keep your navigation simple, avoid using scripts and flash menus. This will ensure that your visitors get all of the pertinent information.
• Keep your website readable. Avoid long, lengthy paragraphs. If you have a lot of important content, avoid using long paragraphs to convey this information. Break up your content into small, easy-to-read sections. This will prevent boredom and keep your visitors on your site. Small bits of information will provide all the necessary information your visitors need to retain.
• Use CSS. CSS style is an easy format to use and will ensure that all of your visitors will be able to view all the information your site has to offer. Ensure that your text is easy to read. Use a standard font. A standard font will ensure that it is compatible with all of your visitors’ computer systems. CSS makes it easy to adjust the font and style of your settings. CSS can easily change the book of your entire website by editing just one file.
• Test your website in other browsers. What looks great in one browser, may look terrible in another. Individuals use a variety of different browsers. It is important to ensure that your messages look great to all visitors, regardless of what type of web browser they use. W3.org is a website that is designed to check the standards of your web design and it’s compatibility with different web browsers. This will help ensure compatibility.

Picking the Right WordPress Theme

Everyone is blogging, picking the right WordPress theme is an important aspect of your blog. When deciding on a theme, think about design, layout, and functionality.

If you want a free theme, try to find something as close as possible to what you had in mind (you maybe able to even tweak a free theme a bit yourself). If you have decided on a Premium theme, you are going to have some options when it comes to colors and admin options. Find a theme that your really like right off the bat, this will make less work in tweaking.

Keep in mind that certain things about WordPress themes are easy to change. Colors and fonts are a rather quick fix, you just need a little CSS. Sidebar placement and changing the layout and structure are little more difficult and you will need to be comfortable with PHP to do so.

Before looking for a theme on WordPress, think about what you want. Examine other sites to get a feel for what you like and don’t like. Try to identify characteristics that draw you to a website.

Also, try to visualize what you want your site to look like. Draw up a diagram of the potential layout you would like. Where do you want the navigation bar? What colors? Etc.. If it is on your website, it should be an important factor. Next you need to figure out where you will have content and where you may have blog posts. This will help you create your site more easily.

One of the most important things to image is what you want your homepage to look like. This is the visit thing visitors will see upon viewing your page. What your page looks like is going to depend on how you are using WordPress. Is this just a blog? A magazine? Portfolio? Business site? Your needs are going to depend on how you use WordPress.

The most important thing to remember when designing your WordPress, is knowing what you want. Know what you have to have and what you are willing to compromise on. Having a plan of attack is the easiest way to get a site you are happy with.

Speed Up Your Website: Web Design Tricks

Effective and quick websites are the best kind. The most important thing to consider as a web designer is that your site needs to be fast loading. Great designs mean nothing if they are going to take all day to load.

In order to make your webpage load quick consider:

Use fewer images. A website will load fast if it does not contain many images. Images will enhance the appearance of your webpage. This does not mean you have to go overboard with the images. Break your webpage down into as much simple HTML as possible. Keep in mind popular sites while designing yours. Remember, sites like Google and Ebay use very few images and load very fast.

Optimize your images for the web. After selecting images, make sure they are web friendly. They should be in gif or jpeg form. Minimizing the colors will also help minimize the size of your image. You can also find online tools, such as Gif Wizard, to help optimize your images.

Get creative with tables. Tables load fast since they are created in simple HTML, so use them wisely. Tables can easily be integrated on homepages or menu bars.

Avoid animated gifs. Only use these if they are absolutely necessary. Animated gifs take a very long time to download, which can frustrate anyone. A small animated gif will be okay, only because they are very catchy.

Use simple icons. Designing simple icons opposed to big, bulky images will help with speed. Adding a little color will draw attention to them.

Resort to background images. Use background images instead of large images when possible. This will drastically reduce the size of the webpage.

Try CSS Style. Have a little fun testing out text effects. You can create rollover text, it’s simple yet has a nice effect. There are many CSS tutorials on the web.

Use flash infrequently. Flash has a lot of hype around it, but also a lot of loading time. Flash many look nice, but it is not so nice on the loading side. If you do want to use Flash, use it within an HTML site and ensure it loads fast.

Use HTML often. Design most of your site in HTML. It loads quick. Use tables, CSS, and simple fonts when designing your site.