Principles of Web Designing
1 year, 5 months ago by James.
Designing a website isn’t only about art. According to our Web Design Philippines Insider, the practice of designing a website follows a strict principle of how a website should be designed. By following these set of principles, web designers are able to create a website which can also serve as a very powerful communication tool, particularly for businesses.
First Principle: Simplicity
Simplicity is the key to a successful website. One mistake in which many beginners lack in designing a website is that they focus more on creating a unique website, using more colors, images, and animations to attract visitors, paying less attention on other more important elements found in the website. One of which is its navigation.
The navigation bar or section is one of the most essential elements, for it allows visitors to quickly and easily navigate throughout the website. This makes it important to make it as simple and as accessible as possible, such as by removing unwanted animations within the navigation bar, although a simple drop down menu may be enough.
Second Principle: Clear Navigation
Emphasizing on the navigation allows visitors to quickly locate it. Many websites failed to notice this important principle by paying less attention on their navigation, which made it harder for visitors to navigate through the website, which causes visitors to leave.
Third Principle: Use of White Spaces
This is associated with the first principle in which using white spaces makes for a cleaner website compared to clattering it with images, texts, or other non-important elements.
Fourth Principle: Faster Load Time
By following the first principle, web designers can assure that their websites can load a lot faster compared to other websites. Although making a website more attractive through heavy use of images as well as “cool” Flash effects, it does, however, causes a major slow down in its loading time, which in turn would likely cause a visitor to hit the “back” button. This is because visitors would likely think that the website is non-responsive.
According to our Web Design Philippines Insider, if one or two images are enough to communicate with visitors, then other images should be removed. This allows the page to load faster compared to using a number of images.
As for the Flash movie, or other animations, it is best to just remove them. If it is important to add a Flash movie within a web page, then adding a pre-loader is required. This allows visitors to see if the website is still responding or not.
Fifth Principle: Using Tableless Website Layout
Using tableless website layout coincides with the fourth principle as it allows faster loading time compared with the use of HTML tables. Tableless website layout are accompanied by using CSS to arrange elements and text on a web page. The use of CSS also allows for cleaner and organized coding.
Sixth Principle: Browser and Resolution Compatibility
Because users use different browsers, such as IE, Safari, and Firefox, a website should always be as compatible as possible in any of these browsers. And this can be achieved with the use of CSS.
Because CSS is considered as the standard in modern web designing ethics, many recognized web browsers, such as IE, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome, supports the use of CSS. Because of this, designers can assure that their website is able to run in any browser of any version.
Another important principle to remember is the website’s compatibility in every type of screen resolution. Failure to follow this principle or practice may lead to a lot site problems in terms of user experience. This, however, can be done with the use of CSS as well as with the addition of JaveScript (JS).
Seventh Principle: Use of Readable and Professional Fonts
Although using unique fonts will add to a website’s uniqueness, experts normally recommend using fonts which are both professional and readable.
Making sure that one’s font is readable and professional looking allows a website to build its name as a reputable website providing reputable services and products. However, if it is necessary to include a number of unique fonts, JavaScript may help in allowing visitors to see what developers would like them to see.
This is because if a visitor’s computer doesn’t support the same font used in a website, its fonts would normally revert back to a default font which is readable for visitors. But according to our Web Design Philippines Insiders and experts, its best to just stick with compatible fonts as much as possible.
Eighth Principle: Use of Media Types
Many designers today, even professionals, have come to leave out the use of Media Types in their websites. Media Types are part of style sheet languages such as CSS which specifies how a document or web page is presented in different types of media, such as on screen, on paper, or with speech synthesizers such as projectors.
Final notes from our Web Design Philippines Insider
Simplicity is the key to a successful website; not only because it made it simpler and easier for visitors to navigate through the website, nor did it made it more professional with the use of the right fonts and white spaces, but websites became more accessible through search engines who normally gives more weight on websites with legit information, clean coding, and faster loading time.
