Create a Website

What Makes a Website Design a Good One?

A lot of people can recognize good design when they see it on the web. But most people don’t really know what makes that design good.

How do you define “good design?” Is it subjective, like your favorite flavor of ice cream? Although there is some subjectivity within good design, there are artistic principles that good design is built from. Here are a few that form the foundation of good design.

1. Proximity

Because items that are in close proximity to one another become one visual unit, items that are related to one another should be grouped together. Laying out related items on a website page this way helps the eye associate the information and enables the viewer to mentally categorize the information easily. The flip side of this principle is that items that are not related should not be placed in close proximity to one another.

The purpose of the principle of proximity is to organize information in a way that enables viewers to quickly and easily comprehend. When information is organized, people are more likely to read it and respond. People are also more likely to remember information that is organized.

How can you determine if items form a visual unit? Squint your eyes and look at the page on a website. Now count the number of times your eye stops as it views the page. On a page that is using the principle of proximity well, your eye will stop three to five times. In other words, there will be three to five groups of information for the eye to comprehend separately.

2. Alignment

You’ve seen website page layouts where the text and graphics are placed wherever there happens to be space. The effect is messy, with no impact. Nothing should be placed on a page arbitrarily. There should be a visual connection between each item and something other item on the page. When items are aligned, it creates a cohesiveness that the eye appreciates.

The purpose of alignment is to unify the website page. Imagine a well-organized kitchen. All the pots and pans are stored in the organizer, the fruit is nicely displayed in a basket on the counter, the spices are all on the rack-everything is in its place. A page layout needs the same thing.

Look at a website page that you feel is good design. Now focus on the main visual element. Where does your eye go from there? Do you see how other elements are aligned with that one main element both vertically and horizontally?

3. Repetition

Good design repeats some aspect of the website design throughout the site. It’s this repetition that makes all the pages in a site look like they belong together. Color scheme, graphic elements, typefaces-all of these elements should be repeated-used consistently-throughout.

The purpose of repetition is to create consistency and to add visual interest. Repetition creates a professional, polished look that the eye is drawn to. When a website design uses repetition and is consistent, it is more likely to be viewed and read.

Here are some was you can create repetition beyond simple consistency in typefaces and colors: Use some element in your logo as a major graphic element in the design. If you are using a ruled line, make the line more interesting visually by perhaps making it with tiny dots or dashes, then repeating the line element throughout the design. Create patterns that are repeated throughout the design. Take a small element and place it somewhere on each page for a whimsical look. Just be careful not to overdo the repetition, or viewers will be annoyed rather than pleased.

4. Contrast

The principle of contrast states that if two items are not the same, then they should be different-very different. Contrast creates an organizational hierarchy of the information and graphics on a webpage. When using contrast, you can’t be a wimp! The contrast must be strong to be effective.

The purpose of contrast is two-fold: to create interest on the page, and to organize information. A page that is interesting to look at is more likely to be read. And contrasting elements will help a reader understand the way the information is organized.

Contrast can be created in many ways. You can contrast large type with small type, a serif font with a sans-serif font, bold with light, smooth texture with rough texture, a small graphic with a large one, a dark color with a light one.

A design that integrates these principles will automatically gain a professionalism and polish that it would otherwise lack. Next time you stumble across a website design that makes you say “wow”, cheek for these principles-you’ll find them quietly working to make that design a good one!

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About the Author: Laura MacPherson – Creative director at Northstar Creative, a website design studio located in Greenville, SC. Her company, Northstar Creative Web Design, approaches website development differently than many web companies. Northstar Creative combines the use of marketing psychology with top-notch web development to create truly exceptional custom sites for its clients.

Learn How To Build A Web Page

If you want to learn how to build a web page there are a number of ways you can go about it. The most important thing you want to do first is decide the which way is going to work best for you.

With enough practice you will learn how to build a web page that will rank within the top 20 search results for all the major search engines. This is the goal of most web page designs, this is done in order to increase the traffic to your web page.

By learning HTML you’ll learn how to build a web page exactly the way you want. You will be in complete control of how your web pages look, the only problem is, HTML takes some time to learn and master.

Another way you can proceed is to use the HTML editor that the various internet service providers will offer you when you sign up with them. These editors made to help you not just learn how to build a web page, but actually build a simple web page designed to be use with their service. While these types of programs will help you learn how to build a web page, they are also very limited and normally you are required to have advertisements on your page.

There is another way. With some programs you ll learn how to build a web page using a step by step approach. Building a web page with this type a program allows you to simply walk through the instructions given to you by the tutorials and step by step instructions. Web page design becomes second nature. All you have to do to learn how to build a web page is to have an idea of what you actually want to accomplish and how you want your website to look. You don t have to be a website design wiz, or a web page building genius, you just have to follow simple instructions.

Your journey to learn how to build a web page could easily cost you hundreds if not thousands of dollars to have special tools and programs that are available today. You can also take the free approach but you re limited as to what you can do and you re required to have someone else s ads on your page. The third option is to learn how to build a web page step by step with one of the new point and click editors.

Website Creation Simplified: Brief Overview Of The Nuts And Bolts

Before you start fiddling around with HTML editors, FTP clients, and Domain registrations, it’s important to have at least a basic understanding of how all this works. This Website creation overview gives you an easy to understand look at what the process of building your own Website really involves.

A website is a collection of files that work together to form a unified whole. These various files, from images to HTML documents and PHP scripts, or instructional software, are organized by a Web browser and displayed appropriately on a computer monitor.

Website creation is essentially the process arranging information in a way that can be translated by Web browsing software, such as Internet Explorer, and presented to human viewers. To do this correctly you’ll need to gain a basic understanding of coding languages like HTML, CSS, and possibly PHP.

 
The process of coding your site is literally the activity of entering numerous individual lines of alphanumeric code that tell the Web browser how to format and display your Web page. While seemingly complex at first, the truth is learning the most basic Web development code — HTML — is less complicated than learning to use the English alphabet.

Once you learn what the various command codes actually do, your next step is to practice organizing them in a structured manner within an HTML document. This is not unlike the process of creating a word processing document and saving it; the only difference is that instead of sentences and paragraphs you’ll be entering HTML tags and attributes.

Once your files are complete, they’ll need to be added to your Web host so other Internet users can access them. The Web host, or server, is a powerful computer that operates around the clock.

It is here that all the files and data that make up your Website will be stored. And you’ll need to register a domain name and synchronize this domain with your host machine so people can type an easily remembered Web address into their browser and literally navigate to your Website by establishing a connection with your host server.

In addition to learning how to create and save basic HTML documents, Website creation requires some level of proficiency in transferring files between your computer and a Web server. This is called File Transfer Protocol, or FTP for short.

To do this, you’ll need a software tool called an FTP client. This utility is installed on your desktop and can instantly form a connection with your Web host, allowing you to upload files to the Web or download them to your machine.

It is also recommended that you become familiar with the directory structure and hosting control panel your Web host provides. This will make it easier for you to manage your Website.

This sounds like a lot of work. But the truth is the average Internet user can become basically versed in all of this within 30 days or less if he or she puts forth an effort to learn.

It’s beyond the scope of this article to delve into the specifics of any particular technique. But I hope at this point you at least have an understanding of what is involved in learning the Website Creation process.

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About the Author: Timothy Aaron Whiston – Quickly and easily learn Web design with the author’s amazing online course. You’ll be an ace Webmaster in no time with this full-blown Web design course at your disposal.

How to Register a Domain Name

Congratulations!  You’ve made it to the 1st step of creating a website.  It is highly recommended that you read this ENTIRE page as it contains important information that most sites don’t tell you about domain name registrations.

NOTE: If you already know about domain names, here Save 10% at GoDaddy.com – World’s No.1 Domain Registrar
.If not, I highly recommend you read on to understand why the name selection is so important.

There are two basic steps to getting your site online and registering/reserving a domain name is the first.

A domain name makes up the address of your site and can end in .com, .net, .org, .info, .us, .biz, .tv and more. Throughout this site you will also see the domain name referred to as the “dot com name”.

Once you have registered your name, you will select a web host (2nd step).  The web host is the guts of any website because this is where you create and publish your pages, build order forms, add functionality and maintain your site.

First, let’s focus on selecting the best domain name for your site…

Selecting The Best Domain Name

If being found in the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) is important to you, I highly recommend you register a name that contains your major keywords instead of your company name.

Think about it.  The average surfer searches by subject, not by proper name.  So why it may seem cool to have a name like TimothysToolTyme.com, you’ll want to choose a name that includes keywords that your target audience would likely use when they search.

So with that in mind, a name like Tool-Tips-for-Beginners.com would be much better than TimothysToolTyme.com.

Sure, you can still list your company name on your web pages, but I believe it’s more important to make sure the domain name includes your important “search friendly” keywords if you want to receive traffic from all over.

Of course, you can still list your company name on the web site some place, but your domain name will include all the important keywords you’ll want to be found with.

Now, as always, there are exceptions…

If you are just creating a website for a local business, getting traffic from all over the web may not be as important to you.  This is because your customers will be local and you may want to grow your brand name in a specific area.

If this is the case, it may make more sense to register your company name and create brand awareness locally instead of trying to capitalize on search engine presence.

For example, let’s say you have a company called J.W. Reed & Co and you help people get rid of debt, but you’re based in Kansas and can only cater to residents in this area.

Since you are only servicing local clients, you may not care if someone in California can find your site in Google since they are not likely to become one of your customers.

In this case, it’s not as important to register a name filled with “search optimized” keywords.  You may decide to just reserve the company name, JWReedAndCo.com.

NOTE:  Keep in mind that the domain name is not the only factor weighed by search engines when deciding your rank.

The content on your web pages and your site’s popularity (inbound links from other sites) is very important too. However, it certainly doesn’t hurt to make sure your name is optimized for maximum results.

Here are some more tips on choosing the best domain name:

1) Don’t register domain names that are too long and have too many syllables if you can help it.  Yes, you can register names up to 63 characters long, but that doesn’t mean you have to use all 63 characters.

You want your name to be easy to remember. Not everyone will bookmark your page initially so try to think of something that can be easily remembered — although I realize this may be tricky since a lot of names are taken these days.

2) Use hyphens if your name is more than 3 words long (unless your name includes 3 short words).  A name like carbuying.com doesn’t really need a hyphen because it’s readable the way it is.

However a name like used-car-buying-scams.com looks better than usedcarbuyingscams.com since there are so many words in the name.

3) Protect your name by registering multiple extensions (.net, .org, etc.)  This deters people from copying your name. For example, if you own garden-tips-for-us.com you can also register garden-tips-for-us.net and any other extension that’s available.

You don’t have to build a site on all the domains, but you can reserve the others to keep people (copycats) from registering them.

How to Register a Domain Name

Reserving a domain name is easy and very cost friendly. The big name companies like Register.com and NetworkSolutions.com charge ridiculous prices such as $30-35/year for one domain name, and you get the same service at WebsitePalace.com for much less.

It doesn’t matter where you register your domain.  Every registrar provides the same services.

You can save a bundle at Save 10% at GoDaddy.com – World’s No.1 Domain Registrar
,and you get a bunch of freebies such as a blog, domain forwarding and a free starter page.

You Should Protect Your Privacy

As you’re registering your name, you will be presented with the option of keeping your domain name private – a deluxe feature you’ll probably want to take advantage of.

A private domain registration will keep your information (name, email address, etc.) out of the global Internet database, and will prevent a lot of spam from reaching your email box.

Even though registering a “private” domain is not mandatory and will not block all spam, I highly recommend you select this option.  I certainly wish this had been available when I created my first site.

Top Notch Support Available

If you should ever have a question, support is available 24 hours/day, 7 days/week.

Most people that come here are new to the website creation scene.  Their number one fear is that they’ll invest their money into something that is new and unfamiliar, and then get stuck with no one to help them should they have a question.  Well, that’s not going to happen here.

It is understood that many of you may be new to this and should you ever have a question you can call or email us at anytime.