Many people love the idea of having a web site, but get scared when they hear the phrase “web design”. After all, don’t you need to be an artist with years of computer programming skill to make a great web page? Thankfully, making a good site is not as hard as it sound once you know the basics.

Before you start working on the pretty part of the site, you need to work on your site’s content. After all, people are going to want to visit your page for more than just pretty pictures! Grab a sheet of paper and make a list of the main areas that you think others will want to visit. “About me”, “home”, and “links” are usually good pages to get your started.

The next step is organizing your web page. If similar things are on your list they can go on the same page. For example, a webring banner and your links can go on the same page. Try not to have too many pages on your web site as people do not like to sift through 20 different pages for information. Keep it simple.

Once you have planned out what is going on your web page and how it is organized, it is time to design your site’s layout. The three most important things are ease of use, visibility, and compatibility.

Visibility is not about site popularity, it is about how easy it is to read things. Choose two contrasting complimentary colors for your site. Remember: the greater the difference in color shades the easier it will be to read! This is why colors like black and white work so well. Avoid using patterned backgrounds as it makes things hard to read.

People like it when a web page is easy to navigate so ease of use is important. All the important pain pages should be listed on a nice, clear menu that is featured in the same place on every single page. If you have any subpages linked off your main pages, a site map link added to the footer of each page is also a good idea.

The final thing to think about is compatibility. Your web page should be able to work on any browser and not require any sort of special software to run. This means that silverlight and flash are both poor choices for the web site as they don’t work on every browser and every operating system and can cause lag or even crashing when they do work. W3C compliant code is a good idea to have to make sure your site will work well.

web design may sound scary but it really is simpler than it sounds. As long as you plan ahead and make sure you take ease of use, visibility, and compatibility into consideration, your site will turn out great! Do not be afraid to get your feet wet and make your own page yourself. You may be very pleased with the results.

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