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Essential Principles of Good Web Design

Guest post by: Grace Alexa

Article Overview: A website design has to be good enough to be able to get all the exposure that the site deserves. To beat the competition, gain visibility on the search engines and enhance user experience, the web designer should follow some essential principles of a good web design- balance, spacing, navigation, typography, relevance, alignment and sharpness.

Essential Principles of Good Web Design

With hundreds of websites being launched every day, it is becoming more and more difficult to get noticed on the Internet. Some website owners resorted to unethical means to rank highly on the search engines, but the changes in the ranking algorithm of Google has seized such activities. Now only those websites that follow the principles of web design get preference by the search engine and can fight for a top ranking on the SERPs.

If you too want to gain preference by the search engines and enhance user experience, you must incorporate the following steps into your website design:

1. Balance: A website has to maintain symmetry throughout the web design in order to ensure that all the elements on the site are well balanced. In order to maintain the balance in the website design, you need to visually assess the position, colour, contrast, size and design elements.
   
   

1. Spacing: Stuffing the pages of a website with too much of content, images and advertisements, can only make them look cluttered and unreadable. Proper spacing on the web pages has to be maintained in order to ensure that the words and images on the web pages are able to convey the right message. There are three aspects that need to be considered in spacing- space between the text lines, padding and white spacing. If all the text on the web page is placed too close to each other, it would make no sense. Similarly, if the images touch or overlap the text on the page, it would not be visually appealing and may also hide part of the text. White space is another crucial element in making the web page readable.
   
   

1. Navigation: Poor navigation is one of the most frustrating things a user experiences while surfing a website. If the users are unable to figure out where to go, the web design is surely a failure. To prevent such a scenario, the website designer should give a lot of thought in making the navigation simple and easy to use. The design should be such that the user would be able to answer the following questions- Where am I right now? Where should I go from here?
   
   

1. Typography: Text is a vital element in the website design and the web designer should ensure that it is readable and visually pleasing. That is determined on the basis of the font size, types, spacing, line length and colour.
   
   

1. Relevance: All the elements on a website should add meaning to it. No irrelevant information should be put on it just for the sake of filling up space. Inapt details give an unprofessional image of the website owner as well as the designer. Thus, one should refrain from doing so and should just stay on the defined path.
   
   

1. Alignment: Unorganised web pages make even the most useful information appear irrelevant. Aligning your web design makes it look more consistent and ordered.
   
   

1. Sharpness: Last, but not the least, the web design should be sharp and crisp. Proper layout, clear images and well-defined content should be a priority.
   
   

Sigma InfoTech an Australian based Web design, Website Development firm specialising in Website Design, Graphic Designer Software Development, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation helps to remain high in the search engines and with it any of the sites can achieve the desired goal of influencing profits.

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Article Tags: Sydney, Web Design, Web Site Design, Website Design, Website Designer



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Re: Top Banner Help - [quote:35xjo6uq]Good job on the banners BennyBoy![/quote:35xjo6uq] No probs:) I agree Online Marketing and Publicity Search Engine Optimization - Web Design and Programming Blogging also may be... Web Design Tutorials Looking to Hire - jobs section Interesting Articles / websites
Re: Reduce Bounce Rate - Website bounce rate matters most today. You can decrease by providing 1. Good Web Layout And Design 2. Relevant and unique content 3. Content clear and proper navigation 4. Improve website loading speed 5. Add relevant images 6. Analysis of keywords 7. Minimize pages 8. optimize your target keywords 9. Good quality of links 10. Take People Where They Want to Go
Re: Top Banner Help - The more popular ones that I've seen: Online Marketing and Publicity Search Engine Optimization Web Design and Programming Blogging Re: the poll, I think there was enough response to warrant the new category. These are very popular search terms. I agree that too many niche categories is not a good idea, maybe keep it to a minimum 2-3 internet related topics. Good job on the banners BennyBoy!
Re: what position to request? - Hi Michael, Great suggestion from David, or you could try something around a design consultancy, How about Website Design Consultant, Design and Development Manager, Website Support and Development Manager or maybe Internet Business Development Consultant. Ultimately whatever you are comfortable with and good luck for the future, Mal.
Re: Great start, but no finish - Hi Guys, I always, always recommend a starter upper read THe E-Myth by Michael Gerber. Many of those that decide to start something dont realize how much work, and how multifaceted running and building a real company is. This books shows people the ins and outs in a simple and effective way. As far as commitment goes, they have to be willing to become lifelong learners. If they arent willing to do that, I have very little hope in their businesses getting past the 1 year mark. There's alot of self reflection that has to go into starting a business, and recreating your life essentially. I also recommend books and resources like The Success Principles by Jack Canfield. Jude


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