One of the hardest and most crucial parts of establishing presence on the internet is designing the actual website. Coming up with a cool website design isn’t too difficult if you have plenty of money to spend on the cost of a web designer; however, it can still come in handy to know the various parts of web design when working with the designer you select.
One way to find a cool website design is to spend some time browsing the internet for websites with pages that suit your taste. If you find an appealing design from a particular designer, look through the designer’s portfolio. Reputable, established web designers have samples of their work available for viewing as well as possible templates to be used by those people who are on a more restricted budget.
In addition to looking at the sample design work, it’s also important to actually log onto the websites displayed and check its usability and layout. Other than the site’s aesthetics and usability, here are a few tips that you should consider when searching for a cool website design.
Layout
A good-looking website should have an appealing layout. Look at how well the articles have been laid out. A single page should be dedicated for every article. This allows the reader to focus more on the subject and avoid any visual distractions. Check the size of the font being used. It should be large enough to read without any difficulty and yet be appealing, attractive and appropriate.
Usability
A cool website design should include the ability to navigate through the pages of the website without any difficulty. If an action button says it will take you to a certain page, it should indeed perform that function without anything else being additionally required.
Valuable Content
One of the key ingredients to a successful SEO strategy is to include quality content. Content is one element that gives the site value for, as they say, content is king. The search engines are now able to evaluate the quality of the content in determining the rank of that page or article. Content anywhere on the website must be appropriate and well-written.
Contrast
Check the contrast between the color of the text and the page. Light color should be used on a dark background and vice versa to improve readability. Black text on a white background is the most effective color combination for text.
Color Scheme
Another tip to be certain that you have a cool website design is to use the same color scheme throughout the web pages. This will help the visitors ascertain that they are still on the website. It is also important that the color scheme sets the right tone and mood appropriate for the website. For example, a website selling children’s toys should have fun and warm colors, while a mortgage broker’s website should use colors that convey a professional and credible impression.
Visual Effects
Images as well as special effects like flash and multimedia can detract from a cool website design. You don’t want a website that is jammed with too many distracting images; less is probably better here.
Avoid large image files that load very slowly. Also work to avoid a slow loading speed by compressing the images. This will help reduce the size of the file and make it load much more quickly on the browser.
As much as possible, in order to have a cool website design, you should not add designs that contain pop-ups, audio and visual effects. Improper use of animated images and auto-play sound effects can easily distract the visitor’s focus.
Links
Links should be easily identifiable. What often works for most people to distinguish links is blue and underlined text. Another good rule for linking is to avoid text that says “click here” as the link. Use text that expresses the character of the link. Make sure that all the links lead to a working page or website.
Navigation
Lastly, one of the important elements of a cool website design is ease of navigation. One of the effective ways to improve site usability is by having a navigation bar available on every page of the site. It minimizes clicking and greatly improves the ability of the user to move around the site.
Site Map
On a website of ten pages or more, a site map should be included as part of the web design. Site maps will further improve the site’s usability. Many web users use the site map to locate content on the site.
These are some of the tips you can use to find a cool website design for your internet presence. It should help you come up with a great, useable website that is a positive reflection of your company and its product or service.
Chris Hunter is an expert Web Designer and Internet Marketer and runs a blog about Internet Marketing techniques. You can also go to his website that is all about Cool Website Design.