Web Design Tips for Beginners
by Heather Landry
Do
not type titles, phrases, links, or entire paragraphs in italics.
See how tacky that looked compared to crisp-looking normal text?
Italics should only be used sparingly and only when you really
want to emphasize (<-like that) a certain word that is
within a sentence or paragraph. Do not emphasize the entire
sentence or paragraph with italics. When you use italics, it is
like you are stressing a word, as you would in conversation.
Do not use CAPITAL LETTERS anywhere on your site. Period. I
can't think of any exception to this rule, not even titles of
pages. The only time you should use capital letters is if you want
people to think you are SHOUTING. That's what capital letters mean
on the web.
Do not create horizontal lines on your web page by typing the
dash key or the underscore key over and over, like this:
_______________. You'll mess up the layout of our page because
there are no spaces in the line. If you need a horizontal line or
bar to break up the space on your page, use an actual horizontal
line. All web design programs come with them. In FrontPage, it's
Insert, Horizontal Line. There is also basic HTML code you can use
to create one.
When using FrontPage, never paste text into your page from
anywhere else. You actually CAN paste, and I do it all the time,
but IF you do, you must use that little box that pops up next to
where you pasted, click that box and choose the option, "Keep Text
Only". Never paste from MS Word without using that option. Never
paste from anywhere without using that option. It will totally
screw up your web pages with extra code that FrontPage cannot read
or handle, like DIV tags. If you have already screwed up your
pages, go into the HTML view and do a Edit, Find and delete all
the DIV tags because that is usually the issue. Blockquotes are
another thing to delete that cause trouble in FrontPage.
Look around the web at nice websites, professional sites, and
compare your site to those. Do those sites use horrible ugly
colors the way you do? (NO) Does a professional site use different
colors and types of fonts the way you are doing? NO, they don't.
So stop doing that. If you want your site to look professional,
you must stick with one basic font in one color with very few
variations. Don't use different sizes of fonts either. Only
headings should be a different size, and there should be few of
those on any one page, usually only one.
Which reminds me, please do not use "pretty" fonts that you
found on your computer or downloaded from the web. When doing web
design, you can only use a few fonts: Ariel, Times New Roman,
Verdana, and Georgia. There are very few others, and it's best
just to stick with these. Do not use cursive fonts - no one can
read them. When you use a font other than the ones I've mentioned
here, visitors probably do not have those pretty fonts installed
on their computers. Therefore, their computer chooses the next
best thing in the computer's opinion, which is usually really
crappy looking and way too small and scrunched up for anyone to
read. It's pitiful. Don't be a victim of "pretty fonts".
Do not put "web awards" all over your site. No one cares but
you. Really. Oh yeah, the only other people who care are the
people who hand out those so-called awards, who are usually
teenagers with unpopular sites who have nothing better to do but
create and hand out awards. Ever wonder why the only sites that
have awards on them are the crappy sites? Exactly. Don't put
awards on your site. It's dumb.
If you are running a business or anything besides a personal
site that you don't expect anyone to see, do NOT use a free
hosting site. You can't imagine how tacky it is.
Don't put animated gifs all over your web page. One is plenty.
Zero is better.
Do not use a crappy background image. Basically, you need to
use a solid color background with no images on it. If you must
have a background image, it needs to be practically invisible so
people can see your text. After all, they are not there to be
impressed by that tacky looking tile background you found on that
free graphics site. Black text on white background is always a
good option. When you came to this page, were you thinking, "Damn,
I hate it when people do black text on white backgrounds. It's so
plain!" No, you didn't because it looks sharp and nice and it's
easy to read and you are here to read the page, not stare at the
background.
Use only clear, sharp graphics. A crappy graphic will make your
whole web site look bad. A nice graphic can make your whole site
look nice. Look at other websites for real examples of this. It's
easy to find.
Don't use an icon of a little mailbox as an "Email me" link.
It's stupid and old.
Don't use colored buttons for your links if you can help it,
unless they are very very professional and nice looking, but that
is kind of rare.
Because I care for you, I am going to give you some great links
to other pages that have good web design tips on them (great ones,
in fact.) I suggest that you read them all and memorize them and
then read them again once every week:
Consulting 101: Don't Be Retarded [A look at crappy web design.]
General Tips for New Web Designers
Heather's Link Exchange and Anchor
Text Tips - for use with Adsense.
Back to Articles Main Page
|
