Some Changes You Can Make Right Now to Improve Your Web Design
Designing a website has many different factors to consider and there is a lot to bear in mind if you want to ensure that it is easy for people to find their way around, and if you want to ensure that it's eye catching and interesting. If you already have your web design sorted then it's going to take a considerable amount of work to completely overhaul it, so we won't go there. But still there are a few changes you can perhaps make relatively easily that will help to make your website more effective and more appealing. Here we will look at some tips to accomplish that.
Images Looking In
First of all, it's a well known fact among web designers that the best layouts have images that face 'in' toward the viewers. In other words you need to make sure that any pictures of people are looking inward toward the content, and similarly any images you have that otherwise have an obvious 'direction' should do the same. The simple reason for this is that pictures which face inward will direct attention in and toward the content, whereas those looking out and away will direct attention away from what you want people to be looking at.
Other Changes for Your Images
Meanwhile there are some other changes you can make to your images which will equally help to improve your site. One such change is to make sure that your images are as small and portable as possible so that your pages load quickly and don't cost people the Earth who are using their mobile network's data connection. To do this, make sure that thumbnails are indeed small images (and not just resized by your HTML) and make sure that they are saved as PNGs not JPGs and certainly not BMPs.
You can also improve images by making sure they are unique. If you can't source your own unique images, then you can accomplish something similar by editing them in Paint – just apply a filter, crop the size down and you're done.
Consider Smaller Screens
If you use a professional web design company, or if you know what you're doing yourself, then your site will be optimized to be viewed on screens of all sizes. However if this is your first dabbling in web design, then you might find that you forgot this little aspect. So how can you quickly rectify this error so that everyone can enjoy your content? One quick fix is to use a 'relative layout' which means going into your CSS and changing the 'dp' values for '%'. This way your pages will take up a precise proportion of the screen rather than an exact number of pixels. You can mix dp with percentages to have a very dynamically shifting site that maintains certain crucial proportions.
Meanwhile you should look at shifting crucial content to the left (rather than having the menu on the left) as this will be visible on all screens.
Consider Fonts
If this is something you have overlooked then it can make your website look less professional. Don't use standard fonts – instead search for one that will give your site identity and stick with that. You might also want to consider a separate bolder font for your headings and titles.
About the Author:
Patrick is a seasoned web design professional and writes about ecommerce design and other website improvement topics.
