Easy Web Design Tricks You Must Know

Web design is a beautiful work of art when the designer of a site has an idea of what he or she is doing. Excellent web design is what sets internet leaders apart from “me-too” sites. Educate yourself if you want to become a great web designer. Learn more about web design, by utilizing the advice included in this article.

Choosing the right graphics can either make or break a website. Remember, bitmap images can get quite large and often don’t work very well while PNG images work fine. For screenshots, text buttons, and other non-photographic images, use PNG if the image has more than 256 colors, and GIF if not. Photos require JPEG to ensure high quality.

For multimedia presentations, take advantage of the new HTML5 standard. Although HTML5 isn’t quite as robust for animation and games as Flash, it has the advantage of working stably on mobile phone browsers, including those contained in Apple hardware. HTML5 is also quite a bit leaner than Flash, so load times will improve, as well.

Don’t use OnExit popups on your website. This tactic is mainly used by internet marketers who are trying a last-ditch attempt to get a sale. Word about these kinds of popups get around, and they will kill your reputation as a marketer. Mozilla has even taken steps to suppress the text on these popups, citing security risks.

Include a link to the homepage on every page of your site. One of the best ways to do this is to make a graphic title for your page that can be included on all pages. Web users are used to clicking on a graphic to return home so there won’t be a learning curve to navigating your site.

Always mark files that must be opened in an external program with an icon. Many sites host PDF files, and less commonly, DOC files, that must be opened in Foxit Reader and Microsoft Word/OpenOffice, respectively. These files should be marked with an icon representing the file type, and a link to download the appropriate viewer if the user does not have it.

Use a descriptive title. Many site owners forget to name their pages, or name them something generic, such as “Welcome Page.” Search engines do use title descriptions in their rankings, so make sure you are as descriptive as possible, without going overboard. Make sure it is usable for your viewers and the search engines.

Use shortcuts as often as you can. Almost everything has a shortcut in web design, and if you take the time to look them over, you’ll find quick ways to do almost everything. You can even use HTML codes to help make changes quicker so that your pages don’t need to be uploaded again.

No matter the niche or what the intent of the site is, you must aim to make them have 10 second or less loading times. You want your site to load quickly on the browser of whoever is visiting your page. Most online users crave instant gratification, so your success relies on providing it.

If you believe your site may be accessed via mobile devices, you will want to keep your designs simple. The use of flash, excessive images, and complicated menus will not translate well to a mobile platform. Keep your page clean and simple, or create a specific mobile site for your users.

Conditional loading and independent CSS pages are important when you design your website. You can do maintenance and testing much quicker and easier if these things are in place. You want to have an easy time making changes and doing the inevitable maintenance you’ll need on your site in the future.

Always make sure that your site design works well on every browser. Your coding might look great in Firefox, but it could be askew in Internet Explorer. You need to find out exactly how things look in all browsers and then code in a way that leaves your site looking the same on every popular browser.

A website can be hugely effective, but only if it’s designed correctly. It’s real easy to spot an experienced or knowledgeable designer from one just taking a stab at it. Try reading the previous tips so that you can learn what makes a great web design.