"Design Principles and Elements"

by Lee Asher

Design Principles and Elements

A truly shocking number of web designers are unfamiliar with the basic principles and elements of design. Having never been through any formal design education, many just go with what they think 'looks good', with very mixed results. If you're going to design a website, you'll do much better if you have some idea of what you're doing when it comes to graphic design. Here, then, is a crash course in the principles and elements most useful to web designers.

Of all the style and beauty in the world, it seems not enough has met the web. We can all do our parts to add to the stylistic content of this new-age phenomenon, and in an attempt to assist you in reaching that goal, I give you a set of guidelines to help you along your way.

Balance.

It is important for things to be balanced. That doesn't necessarily mean symmetry, making one side exactly the same as the other, but it does mean that you can't make one side 'strong' and not balance that on the other side. For example, if you use a dark colour, you should balance it with a larger area of a lighter colour. What balance allows you to do is to lead the viewer's eye to certain parts of the page without making the page look ridiculous.

Emphasis.

If you want to make part of the page stand out from all the rest, you can give it emphasis using a variety of techniques. Grouping everything together and then moving one thing a significant distance away from them will make it a focal point, as will making it a different shape from the others, or a different colour.

Line.

The directions of your lines will give a mood to your design: as a rule, horizontal lines are calmer, vertical lines are moderately active, and jagged or diagonal lines are very active. If you were designing an austere financial news site, then, you'd use horizontal lines, while a fun site for kids would be full of lines going in all sorts of directions.

Shape.

One thing that lots of people don't realise is that there are two kinds of shapes - positive and negative - and every design has both kinds of shapes. The positive ones are the ones you, the designer, actively placed on the page, while the negative shapes are the spaces created around the positive ones. Many web designers simply ignore this, leaving their negative shapes as a mess - this leads to the 'boxy' look that many amateur pages have.

Colour.

Colour is a big subject. As soon as you add more than one colour to a page, you make the other colours look different. Some colours are complementary, and some just look terrible together. On the web, though, you should usually avoid using too many colours on one page - even if they are complementary, it will look garish.

For the web, hue is more important: the best way to create a colour scheme is to use black, white, and various shades of one colour. You have to consider the brightness and intensity of your colours, to make sure you're not overdoing things. One of the easiest mistakes to make is to use the built-in CSS colour words (background-color: red, for example) instead of creating colour codes - the colour words should generally be avoided, because they're just too intense.

Space.

You can create all sorts of illusions with the amount of space you put between your objects, and where you put it: design is often as much knowing where to put something as it is knowing what to put there. If you make things overlap, or example, the covered things appear to be at the 'back' while the uncovered ones are at the 'front'.

Lots More.

This is the briefest of brief overviews, because graphic design is a surprisingly large subject, and one that's changing all the time. If you want to get properly up to speed, it's worth buying a book, or even taking an evening course at your local college - you won't regret it.

About the Author
Original Source: Articles-Galore.com
Information supplied and written by Lee Asher of Eclipse Domain Services
Domain Names, Hosting, Traffic and Email Solutions.

"Revolutionary Guide to Web Designs"

by Marithe Milano

The Big Idea

There are a thousand of people and companies who would want to advertise their services for web designs. The question here is, are you sure if the services that you have bought would be the one that you really like or the best deal in town? Think twice.

In this article, I would like to share tips and advises to Web designs. Yes, your own creation. But before we begin, we have to make sure of 2 important things.

First, analyze your goals and needs then make a plan.
Second, create a site specification on what you intend to do, what trend and technology (including how much you are going to spend) and the most important, the content you'll need . If you are able to decide on this part, then you are ready to begin. Here's the step by step process.

First and foremost, create a site definition. This is the initial stage where in you have to define your specification and objectives for the website you are going to make. Analyze the goal you have in mind and justify the budget and things required. In this stage, you also need to define the site content, the information resources that you will need to meet your prospects needs.

Second, website architecture. Programming, database design, search engine design and data entry is performed in this stage.

Third, site design. This is the stage wherein you have to obtain its appearance as that of the page grid and overall graphic design. You have to visualize the content for the site that needs to be created. Plan, research, write, organize and edit the text content is done in this stage.

Fourth, website construction. This is the stage wherein all pages are completed and programming components linked. This is the time we could possibly say that it is now ready for beta testing.

Fifth, marketing of website. This is where optimization of site is done. Basically, this is the time that you need the expertise of a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Specialist to promote your site in many ways. Your website must be part of all marketing campaigns and corporate communication programs. Article submission, Link popularity, press releases, etc., is performed during this stage.

Sixth, keep track of your progress through evaluation. By analyzing the server logs for your website, you can develop a quantitative data on the success of your site. There are a number of popular software packages wherein you can track down your visitor including their locations (state, city and country) and time, the keywords that they have used to find your site, the referrer sites, etc..

Now that you are done with it, after making all the links "live," please do not abandon your site. It doesn't end there. You have to maintain your site. You need constant attention and constant development changes in order to make it more and more capable. You must also need to check periodically if the links are intact and functional.

In website designing, you need not to set a budget that is too high. You need not to get an expensive service. You just need appropriate research and familiarity to make your own. Careful planning of an objective and clear purpose are the main keys to success in building websites.You can create the most unique or simplest design. What's important is that you have done what you have always want it to be.

About the Author
By: Marithe Milano, Internet Marketing Specialist of MegaWebDesigns MegaWebDesigns is the leading provider of website development services such as website design, web hosting services, domain name registration and client-server application development at affordable packages.

MegaWebDesigns: Web Design, Hosting and Development Services http://www.megawebdesigns.com mail to: info@megawebdesigns.com; marketing@megawebdesigns.com

"Do you have a marketing plan for your site?"

by Florie Lyn Masarate

Without the proper plan, there is a great possibility that your site will be going down the drain instead of building a stable source of income for you.

Here are some useful process you can use for your site marketing plan.

Gather and analyze information. You will need information about your company, competitors, customers, and other industry players. This includes all you can find about how the Internet is currently being integrated in your industry with respect to products, promotions, pricing structures, and distribution channels.

From this information, you can complete industry and analyses as well as identify your target customers. Develop your Web site objective. The objective addresses the "big picture". If your company's main site-related challenge is figuring out how to use your Website to help build client business, for example, an objective for your Website marketing plan. To enhance online client service as well as build site awareness and interest with clients."

Create strategies. Strategies can support your objective. Your strategies define the general approaches you will take to meet your objective. For example, strategies to support the above objective could include improve; online communication, information, and education, build awareness of and interest in your company on the Internet and communicate the Web site's existence and advantages to existing clients.

Choose tactics. Tactics are where the action takes place. These are the things you will do to bring your strategies to life. Tactics could include sharing experience and observations in your industry through participation in discussion boards, offering an email newsletter, and submitting your site to targeted search engines.

The Write-Up. Once you have your plan developed, there are numerous ways to do the write-up. If you are a company employee, there may be standards you must follow. If you are an entrepreneur, go with a style you find usable. For some ideas on what to include, read one of my previous articles, "What to Include in Your Marketing Plan Write-Up" at

After your initial plan is developed, you should care for it as a work in progress. Pull and adjust because it is needed in response to changing conditions. Many companies update their marketing plans annually when developing budgets for the coming year and reviewing the company's business plan.

Whether you are a one-person shop or part of a good-sized company, having a Website marketing plan can help your business prosper on the Web. Make your strategy work. Put some quality time into your plan.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.digitalprintingcompany.com

About the Author
Florie Lyn Masarate got the flair for reading and writing when she got her first subscription of the school newsletter in kindergarten. She had her first article published on that same newsletter in the third grade.

"Quality Web Design with Results - The Basics"

by Todd Levi

Beyond Appearance: Every design has a "sales" potential. Think about it, why do some websites sell better than others? While every site needs to be visually attractive and pleasing to the eye, effectiveness of the web site to perform for the company is what the goal of the web site should be. The key to effective web design is to convert visitors of your web site into buyers of what ever your selling (products, information, ideas, etc.) Even though we always need to keep in mind important SEO and Marketing strategies when creating content rich pages, we ALWAYS need to keep the visitor in mind to "close the deal".

Rule I. Sacrifice Beauty for Effectiveness: While we want the website to stand out on a visual level, we need to realize that there are many factors to making a website a success on the internet. Before we add a ton of great looking graphics we need to ask ourselves if this is hindering the overall effect we are trying to create with the viewer. Would we be better off using text links to allow for better site navigation and usability? Most times the answer is at least partially YES! Text not only makes the page load faster, it also allows non conventional web browsers to navigate the site more effectively. For instance, when a search engine "spiders" (crawls through) your site, it could care less about graphics and goes right for the text links.

Rule II. Less Is More: Unless a site is quick and easy to use it will be a barrier rather than an open invitation to users. Current usability standards suggest users spend on average less than 2 minutes on a website. The key to engaging visitors must therefore be simplicity over complexity. Keep in mind that when using the word "simplicity" I am not talking about getting rid of all of your content, in fact words are the lest amount of problems. All pages should still have over 250 words on them to properly get your point across and for SEO purposes. However less graphics, less flash and other memory hogs need to be reconsidered. That's why you need to live by the axiom that less is more - less clutter, fewer barriers. Let's look at a few ways to obtain the results of this axiom:

A) Make pages easy to read and engulf. It's a well documented fact now amongst designers that people rarely read pages online - they "speed read". Therefore, if the information they need is not easy to access they move on rapidly. Using easy navigation techniques like proper heading placement will allow users to access the information they find valuable from you faster. Proper use of white space and overall spacing should be a must in a webs design. Clearly differentiate thoughts with space and borders making accessibility priority.

B) Follow Standards: When it comes to labeling headings, tags and navigation links. It's imperative to follow industry standards that have evolved on the internet. Not only will it bring a sense of familiarity to the user, but also comply with search engines and internet browsers.

C) Layout, Graphics and Colors: The web makes it easy for designers to do some amazing things with graphics and colors. The first portion of your site is similar to opening a letter sent in an envelope. When you remove the letter that is folded in three sections, you will see the top third of the page first. Designs with a dramatic color can make compelling choices for setting a mood, however reading on a computer screen demands contrast, otherwise the web viewer will be dizzied by vision fatigue. You do not want to irritate or tire your visitors in any way to keep them reading on or coming back. Striking graphics can be real eye-catching for viewers; however successful internet marketers are pretty much agree that you should avoid flash graphics as much as possible. Another important factor to consider is that not all colors are viewed the same way on all monitors, so here we revert to the KISS policy of keeping it simple.

D) Copy Basics: You may not realize this but many of the successful internet marketing businesses already figured out that design and layout of the website should be as much of a marketing decision as the ad copy on the website is. People feel comfortable with words. Words are found and analyzed by the search engines. Most importantly, words are what drive sales and build confidence among web users. This has been true in other forms of media long before the internet was born.

I will touch on all of these aspects and more in future articles, but this is a great starting point when embarking on your new web presence or a guide to recreating your current site.

Todd Levi is the owner of http://www.LeviSolutions.com. He specializes in effective web design, hosting and marketing strategies. With over 5 years of experience online he has dedicated himself to enriching the web with qaulity. He also has helps others do the same thing by focusing his efforts in his online blog at http://seo-marketing.levisolutions.com

"Small Business Website Design Strategies"

by Charles Preston

For a small business a website can have a massive impact on whether that small business thrives or dies out. There are several very important differences between a website built for a large business and a website built for a small business. It's important that a small business and the website design company who builds the website for that small business are aware of those differences so that the website has the greatest positive impact.

First of all don't try to look and act like the big boys. If you are a small business please do not plaster your site with platitudes like "family owned since 1642" or "customer service is our specialty" blah blah. IBM and Coke can get away with having pretty sites that blather on and on using all kinds of corporate jargon but a small business cannot do that. Here's why...

Big companies are already established brands. They can rest on their laurels now; at least they think they can. A small business website needs to grab the visitor by the throat with some hard hitting headlines and copy and get busy proving its case because before visiting that website it's likely the visitor has never heard of that small business.

Think of it like a courtroom. The small business is on trial it's products and services are suspect from the get go. That small business needs to prove beyond a shadow of doubt that it can provide the best value over its competitors. What's worse is that you only have about 8 seconds from the time the visitor hits the homepage to the time they click the back button to hook them into your sales copy.

The number one difference here is the copy. A small business website needs to be a life support unit for its unique selling proposition or USP not a contestant in this year's flashy foo foo web design award contest. Win customers not awards. Forget the animation and music and go easy on the images. What a small business needs is a lean, mean conversion machine.

Research has shown that visitors don't even consciously register images until after they have absorbed the copy on the page. Makes sense because what they came for was information not the old receptionist at the desk on the phone pictures that we have seen over and over again. They want to know who the heck you are and what you can do for them and make it snappy!

It's brutal but that's the way it works. A small business that knows this and applies this to their website has a huge advantage over those who don't. So if you are a small business owner and need a website keep this article in mind or if you have an existing website take a look at it and reevaluate it's effectiveness in light of this information. Small changes can have dramatic effects on sales conversion.

About the AuthorArticle is submitted on behalf of Charles Preston, who is President of Click Response, a website marketing and design firm where you can get affordable search engine optimization that works.

"How To Pick Your Website Colors"

by Ron King

Before you can consider the finer points of your design, you need to make the big decisions. Few decisions are more important than the color scheme your website is going to use.

Pay Attention To Contrast

You need to pick colors that provide enough contrast to make your text stand out in order to promote readability. Stay away from using a light colored font on a light color background as it would be very difficult to read. Remember your emphasis is on getting your message read. An unread message is a useless message.

Not Too Many Colors

You should choose 3 or 4 colors for your site, and use only those colors (or shades of those colors). Decide ahead of time which colors you're going to use, and stick to it.

Complementary Colors

Complementary colors are opposite each other on a color wheel. The 3 most common sets are: * red and green * blue and orange * yellow and purple.
These colors work surprisingly well together.
Complementary colors also are a good way to pick colors that will be easily readable against a certain background: look for the exact opposite color to maximise readability.

Analog Colors

Another approach to try is to pick colors that are similar to your main color, meaning that they're near to it on the color wheel. Red, for example, goes well with its analog colors, orange and yellow. If overdone, this can make your site look too bright, but in moderation the results can look good. It's no coincidence that these combinations often occur in nature.

Chromatic Colors

A personal favorite, chromatic colors use different shades and hues of 1 color for your entire design -- nothing else except black and white. For example, you might use light blue, bright blue and dark blue together. This creates a sleek and professional look.

Take Colors From Nature

For inspiration for a color scheme, go for a walk outside. Take a look at plants, landscapes, and animals. Nature knows how to use colors -- learn from it.

Color Blindness

Try to make sure that your design uses color to make itself aesthetically pleasing, but doesn't rely on the color scheme for anything essential. Statistics show that perhaps 10% of the web users are at least partially color blind, so you need to consider these people when you design your site. Make sure they can at least read your text.
To see things the way a color blind user would, visit vischeck.com.

About the Author
Visit Web Design DIY to learn more. Ron King is a full-time researcher, writer, and web developer, visit his website at Website
Copyright 2005 Ron King.

"Revolutionary Guide to Web Designs"

by Marithe Milano

The Big Idea

There are a thousand of people and companies who would want to advertise their services for web designs. The question here is, are you sure if the services that you have bought would be the one that you really like or the best deal in town? Think twice.

In this article, I would like to share tips and advises to Web designs. Yes, your own creation. But before we begin, we have to make sure of 2 important things. First, analyze your goals and needs then make a plan. Second, create a site specification on what you intend to do, what trend and technology (including how much you are going to spend) and the most important, the content you'll need . If you are able to decide on this part, then you are ready to begin. Here's the step by step process.