Growing As A Web Designer To Be Better

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Growing As A Web Designer To Be Better
Do you want to create a great website? Do you know what it is that makes a great website? It's web design. Without proper web design, your site may not do as well as you hope. Don't worry though because this article can help. The information below can explain what goes into a great web design.

Keep the size of your web pages small. A lot of modern web pages are full of unnecessary elements, including huge images, Flash advertising, and lots of AJAX. Many people, especially those in rural areas and other countries with less-developed internet infrastructure, don't have high-speed Internet and will have to wait forever for a large page to load.

If you're designing a website, make sure the code you write has a valid HTML+CSS. Although most browsers can make sense of code that isn't valid, it could be rendered correctly or incorrectly. Valid code will render the same way most of the time in modern browsers. You can check the validity of your HTML code with an HTML validator.

You should always be on the lookout for new information from various forums that can help you learn how to start out or gain more knowledge with web design. You can just do a quick google search and find the information that you want to learn right on the web for free.

Don't force users to install strange BHOs. Many tech-savvy users won't do it. Common offenders include unusual video players, image viewers, and platforms for interactive games. For most standard use cases, there is a trusted plugin, such as Windows Media Player or even Flash) that will do what you want without driving away users.

Always mark files that must be opened in an external program with an icon. Many sites host PDF files, and less commonly, DOC files, that must be opened in Foxit Reader and Microsoft Word/OpenOffice, respectively. These files should be marked with an icon representing the file type, and a link to download the appropriate viewer if the user does not have it.

Make sure your website is easily scanned. Various tests on usability demonstrate that most online readers do not actually read all the content; instead, they scan it for something that interests them. Using text that is emphasized to break it into sections that are easily scanned ensures your readers are more likely to return. Also, make sure to keep the most important information at the top. All of this ensures a more satisfying experience for your visitors because they can quickly find what they need.

Learn about shortcuts, and use them often. Almost everything has a shortcut in web design, and if you take the time to look them over, you'll find quick ways to do almost everything. There are even HTML codes that allow you to make fast changes to each of your pages without having to re-upload them.

Avoid using animated GIFs on your site. These were popular in the late 1990s, but newer technologies have replaced the uses for animated GIFs that were actually useful. Animated GIFs are low in quality and large in file size. Use static icons for page elements and actual video files for complex animations.

When designing your website, create independent CSS pages for the web browsers and use conditional loading. Using these techniques makes it much easier for testing and ensuing maintenance later on. All websites need to be maintained at some point, and you want it to be as simple as possible so you can easily make changes.

We are all used to seeing the letters "www" at the beginning of a website address. But this well known sub-domain is not always necessary to gain access to a site. Be sure that your site works with or without this, as you could lose a lot of traffic by users who don't know that it works both ways.

Do you still wish to create a great website? Do you know what it is that makes a great website now? Do you know more about web design now? Can you apply it properly to your future designs to be successful? You should be able to now, after reading this article.