Aspects of Web Design

Web designing is probably the most widely employed designing around
the world! Every recognized body, every association, almost every
actor has a website. As of 2009, there are more than 233 million
websites. Every site has numerous web pages! What is the total number
of web pages? You do the maths! Statistics say that if you click on a
webpage each second of the day, it would take us 99 years to complete
the internet. Add to that the thousands of pages getting created each
day! Staggering numbers aren't they?So imagine you are an owner of a
website! How can you make your web site stand out among the multitudes
of websites available online? What aspects make a professional
website? What makes it special? What makes it different from the
masses of websites on the internet created by amateurs?Firstly the
most important aspect is the appearance of the website. When we speak
of appearance it mostly involves two things.One is color combination.
Too many colors make the website unattractive. Also websites can be
browsed by people with eyesight impairments; too many colors can be a
strain on their eyes. Professional designers usually go with 3 main
colors and their various shades. Also the color combination should be
done in a way that main content of the webpage stands out and is
readable. In most cases the background and the text are in contrasting
colors, allowing a person to easily read the text on the web page.
After all the reason you create a website is that people read it! For
example the popular website Yahoo uses white for background, purple
for logo and black for text. While the coloring of the website is
simple and attractive the text on the web page stands out and can be
easily read without strain.Another thing you need to keep in mind is
that the images or the graphics on the webpage must be closely related
to the content of the webpage. Pictures which are out of context can
mislead the user and that is something no professional website owner
would like. Also it is something that would reflect badly on the web
designers.The other is navigation. Navigation means - your guide to
move from one place to another, in this case it refers to the links on
your webpage to move through your website! Navigation needs to be
simple, links must stand out on your webpage and it must not take more
than 3-4 links for a person to reach a destination. Most commonly one
page called the home page has the links to almost all parts of the
content on a website. This makes the navigation much easier. Let's
consider the same example again. Yahoo's homepage has the links to all
the content on the website - mail, games, messenger, movies, music and
so on.In other words the difference between a professional web
designer and an amateur is that a professional web designer keeps it
simple and easy.