Forming A New Website's Layout

[hast-webben 0]

Here are some more tips on good web layout designing.. I got these from experience, observations, and advices from my fellow weavers.. Hopefully, these could help..

 

1) Know your audience

 

I think that this is one of the most important things. Knowing your audience helps you decide on how simple, or how flashy your layout would be..

2) Observe Simplicity

 

When designing layouts, one should keep in mind that "You can never go wrong with a simple layout."

3) Put yourself in your audience's point of view.

 

Being a designer, we may tend to lack the state of being open-minded.. It is important to put yourself in the reader's point of view, and try to browse your layout as if you are not the one who developed it. In that way, new flaws, (especially with navigational structures) will be determined..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi,

 

What if you don't exactly know your audience? I've been added to webmaster for an sport club, and they have arround 560 members and then do they need to be seen nationwide with both their results and profile.

 

I did choose to design it in regular way that means 1024x768 px screen resolution and 32 bites color resolution, and ajusted to fit both ie and firefox (haven't used much time on opera).

 

I might need an script to research my audience but I can't found any small free scripts for that. So if any could be helpfull to find some smart solution would I be greatfull.

 

See you

Cheers!

Jens

[kraizii88z 0]

Organization

 

Things should be easy to find. Navigation should never be confusing. Try to make sure the labels youâre put on your links are direct or to-the-point as possible. I personally like things small. To me itâs easier to see, ironically enough, and get around. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I always went with big and obviuos.. but now i see that small is good, too. It is way more stylish and can be easier to navigate, ironically.

[chiiyo 0]

Hmm, another viewpoint to add.The other way you can do a layout is to decide where certain "blocks" of content go. Usually you would have a header/footer of some sort that advertises the name of the site, then you have a block which is the navigation bar, where all the links are chained up in a menu, and then you have the main content block, where all the information for that page goes, and then if you want, a small block at the bottom for copyright information and bottom text links.The way I usually come up with interesting layouts is to shuffle these blocks around. I may decide, for example, to put the header/footer block in the middle of the page for impact, and then structure the rest of the blocks around that focal point. Or I might put everything in one straight vertical line, one after the other. Sometimes you can fool around with the blocks themselves too. One of my old designs included a navigation block that wasn't just a list of links, but formed in a way the entire block had a cube of words.Most of the time I design without use of pictures, so it makes the basic layout structure very important. Without an interesting layout, the site would fall apart.

[mzwebfreak 0]

One other thing that I have yet to see mentioned is the fact that one of the biggest things you can do to help speed up download time is to save graphics for the web, and I generally either use JPEG or GIF medium, because that way the graphic is still readable, but it's sometimes smaller than if you saved it the normal way, so it takes less time.

[rkage 0]

Meh I'll give my tips for creating websites.

Do not use Photoshop or ImageReady to create websites. The code generated is incorrect and won't work in alot of browsers. If you want a great layout that you have made from Photoshop, then use CSS and DIVs to position the images for the layout - not tables!

Use PNG file formats for saving graphics like link backgrounds or gradients for a background. Use JPEG for banners or other photographs. Reduce the resolution of these as much as possible that preserves the quality of the image for your requirements.

If you are going to build a large website, make sure you have got your CSS correct at the start so that each time you need to add a new page, you don't have to go back and edit your CSS file, otherwise the other pages may not work correctly. Plus, if you have a well formed CCS style page, creating new webpages can take only a few minutes.

If in doubt of what colours to use; find a colour scheme from various of the colour scheme websites such as Colour Lovers. Make sure you contrast the text and backgrounds well.

As a final note, don't take shortcuts. Write out the full code needed, if any problems, in layout or otherwise, occur sort them out there and then, otherwise they will come back to haunt you later on.

[rkage 0]

Meh I'll give my tips for creating websites.

Do not use Photoshop or ImageReady to create websites. The code generated is incorrect and won't work in alot of browsers. If you want a great layout that you have made from Photoshop, then use CSS and DIVs to position the images for the layout - not tables!

Use PNG file formats for saving graphics like link backgrounds or gradients for a background. Use JPEG for banners or other photographs. Reduce the resolution of these as much as possible that preserves the quality of the image for your requirements.

If you are going to build a large website, make sure you have got your CSS correct at the start so that each time you need to add a new page, you don't have to go back and edit your CSS file, otherwise the other pages may not work correctly. Plus, if you have a well formed CCS style page, creating new webpages can take only a few minutes.

If in doubt of what colours to use; find a colour scheme from various of the colour scheme websites such as Colour Lovers. Make sure you contrast the text and backgrounds well.

As a final note, don't take shortcuts. Write out the full code needed, if any problems, in layout or otherwise, occur sort them out there and then, otherwise they will come back to haunt you later on.

[Turiddu 0]

Usually when I create my layouts I'll start out with a 800x600 canvas in Adobe Photoshop.. I don't think it matters what the colors are of a website, it just matters what the graphics and content are.. If the graphics are eye-popping it's definately something that will attract users, not only from fellow graphic designers on the web but from the public if your putting out interesting content and something that is going to keep them coming back..

how to begin becoming a good designer?

you can easily search on google for Photoshop tutorials, Maya tutorials, and 3ds max tutorials.. 3ds max and Maya are 3d modelling softwares, and Photoshop is the graphics editor.. also macromedia flash, it's taking over the internet you would want to incorporate that in your webdesign also.. now everything takes real extensive time to learn if your a quicker learner, but you have to remember as much work you put in to a project, is how much you will get out of it.. so if you don't spend much time on learning and practicing these softwares, you'll never get any use out of them..

bottom line is when it comes to webdesigning i think its more about the graphics that drop jaws and/or the communities and content that keep the website alive and not something thats only had a reply or update from 2 months ago...

Software Sites
Flash - http://www.adobe.com/
Maya - http://www.autodesk.com/products/alias-products/overview
Photoshop - http://www.adobe.com/

Tutorial Sites
Flash - http://www.flashkit.com/tutorials/
Photoshop - http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
Maya - http://simplymaya.com/

they all have free trials on their website

 

[runefantasy 0]

What's the best colour for a fan site?

[jet 0]

I think "what's the best colour" would have to be one of the most common design questions asked. And once again, the reply is the same. "What is your website about?" You're not going to do a Quake or Doom Clan site in pastel colours. You're not going to do a barbie site in black and blue. So think about the subject of your website, think of the colours that represent your theme.. And voila! Those are your colours. The general guides are don't use colours for font/background with too big a contrast - pricks the eyes, or too low a contrast - strains the eyes.