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Web Designing is as easy as 1-2-3; claim some of the software tools on the market that “generate” your pages for you. Unfortunately, many web designers today have fallen prey to this marketing gimmick - and the results are obvious. Every now and then, one comes across a website that looks good with a particular browser and a particular screen-resolution; but views it with a different browser, and you can’t even read the plain text on the page. Worse still, given the number of operating systems that are used by citizens worldwide, these pages will never be seen properly by more than a half of the intended surfers. Web Designing is, in my opinion, a cocktail of creative skills from the heart and mind of the designer.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Picture file almost as big, Images, no doubt, enhance the look of a page, but it is not advisable to go overboard in stuffing your page with a truckload of images. Most net-surfers use low broadband connection and the average time to load a page should be no longer than 5 seconds. If it’s longer, the surfer will most probably click away elsewhere. So, within this time, all the images on a page must be loaded as well. So keep the aggregate page size less than 30k… Another important point to note is that each file on the page requires a separate HTTP request to the server. So a lot of small images - even if they do not add up to a lot in terms of bytes - will slow down the loading a lot. Also do not forget to provide an Alternate Text for each image that you use for navigation. ALT text can help such users immensely

Navigability & functionality come before artistic excellence. It is no use making your site a masterpiece of art if users cannot navigate around it - even after they reach the main page; they have no clue as to how to go where they want to go. Especially common, is a kind of navigation that some people call Mystery Meat Navigation. That means that unless your mouse moves over an image, you have no idea where that link might take you. Users need to move their mouse all over the place to find out which part is a link and which is not. Follow the K.I.S.S. principle: Keep it simple, stupid!

Another very important practical suggestion: whenever whole page is within a TABLE, the page cannot render (i.e., the page does not show on the screen) unless the entire table is downloaded. You might have noticed this on several websites, when there is no activity for a long time, and suddenly the entire page is visible. Hence, to avoid such a situation Split the table up into two tables one below the other, and let the top one be a short table that displays just the page header and a few navigation links.

As a word of caution, stay away from all browser-specific functions; because if a certain feature is supported by one browser, it will most definitely not be supported by another. It should not hamper the display of the page in the other browser which does not support such functionality. Do not try to popup new windows to clutter the user’s screen. All links must open in the same window by default. An exception, however, may be made for pages containing a links list. It is convenient in such cases to open links in another window, so that the user can come back to the links page easily. Even in such cases, it is advisable to give the user a prior note that links would open in a new window.

Java is yet another often-misused technology on web pages. Use Java with discretion, as utilitarian programming language, not as a graphics front-end for your photos/images. There are various things you can do with Java; that does not mean you should do all of them. Java applets are known to run slower, so users experience a certain problem in performance.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are the way to go - use one style sheet and control how text looks on your entire site. Make a change to the style sheet and your whole site is updated. It makes life a lot simpler. Consider your target audience. Even if they are a group of teenage girls looking for new shoes, it’s never a good idea to use tiny type. It doesn’t have to be enormous, but up to a point, larger type is better. The more contrast, the better. Black-on-white or white-on-black are examples of the highest contrast you can get. Use colors if you like. No matter how good a writer you are, people don’t want to read endless pages of text. Break it up by using headlines that reflect the subject of the paragraph to follow so people can scan down to the parts that really interest them, or use bulleted lists to change the pace of the writing and slow down the scanning.

Check your spelling, nothing irritates more on a web page than spelling errors, it simply makes you look like you don’t care enough to get it right. Use that ubiquitous spell-check tool. Making your website’s content more legible is easy. It doesn’t take a lot of time, mainly common sense. The payoff will be text that’s more readable, customers that stick around long enough to get your message, and improved credibility with your visitors.

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Hello, my name is Phil Laboon, I own and operate a well-known Pittsburgh web design and search engine optimization company, Eyeflow. When a customer first gets in touch with me about designing or optimizing their web site, I usually already know what their problems are.

So I?ve come up with some easy fixes that can help you design your website for better conversion ratios:

*Many web design companies (at least in Pittsburgh) will tell you that a Flash website will give you better conversion ratio?s but my experience html sites always do better in every aspect. They rank better in search engines and users are usually much more familiar with the layouts and designs which help them navigate it better.

* Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is the method to use - use one style sheet and control how text looks on your entire site. When you make a change to the style sheet, your entire site is updated. This makes everything a lot simpler.

* Divide text up into paragraphs. Most people don’t want to read endless pages of text. Break it up by using headlines that reveal the subject of the paragraph to follow so people can scan down to the parts that interest them, or use bullets to highlight information.

* Make sure the font size is big enough to read. Consider your target audience. It doesn’t have to be enormous, but up to a point, larger type is better. 12-pt Times New Roman is better than 8-pt.

* Make the text different than the background. The more contrast, the better your site will look. Black-on-white or white-on-black is examples of the best contrast you can get. Use colors if you like, but if you have to squint at the page and your text essentially fades away, there’s not enough contrast.

* Don’t stack lines on top of each other. Use the line-spacing in CSS and give the lines some space; often line-spacing is set to 140% of the height of a usual line.

* Don?t use the same title tag on every page of your site. You want to customize the title tag on every page of the website.

For Example Using www.Eyeflow.com:

On your homepage you want your ?Big Hitter Keywords? like ?Pittsburgh Web Site Design? or ?Pittsburgh Web Design Company? but on inner pages you want to tone down the keywords to be more specific to the information on the page. So if you have a page with your web design packages you can use title tags like ?Low Cost Web Design Pricing from Eyeflow? or ?Affordable Pittsburgh Website Design Packages?. With this method you are not duplicating the same title tags on every page but still focusing on search engine rankings for the keywords you want.

And probably the most important - check your spelling. Nothing is more irritating than simple spelling errors, when there?s a spell check tool readily available.

Designing a web site that is easy to read and customer friendly is easy. Just use common sense and the payoff will be a site that’s more readable; customers that stay on your site long enough to get your message, and improved reliability with your visitors.

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